consequently in much practice among the negroes; but in this tindery
country it is extremely dangerous, and forbidden by the law. As I
returned home to-day from church, I observed a large smoke at no great
distance, and Cubina told me, he supposed that the negroes of the
neighbouring estate of Amity were clearing their grounds. “Then they are
doing a very wrong thing,” said I; “I hope they will fire nothing else
but their grounds, for with so strong a breeze a great deal of mischief
might be done.” However, in half an hour it proved that the smoke in
question arose from my own negro-grounds, that the fire had spread
itself, and I could see from my window the flames and smoke pouring
themselves upwards in large volumes, while the crackling of the dry
bushes and brush-wood was something perfectly terrific. The alarm was
instantly given, and whites and blacks all hurried to the scene of
action. Luckily, the breeze set the contrary way from the plantations;
a morass interposed itself between the blazing ground and one of my
best cane-pieces: the flames were suffered to burn till they reached
the brink of the water, and then the negroes managed to extinguish them
without much difficulty. Thus we escaped without injury, but I own I was
heartily frightened.
APRIL 8.
This morning I was awaked by a violent coughing in the hospital; and as
soon as I heard any of the servants moving, I despatched a negro to ask,
“whether any body was bad in the hospital?” He returned and told me,
“No, massa; nobody bad there; for Alick is better, and Nelson is dead.”
Nelson was one of my best labourers, and had come into the hospital for
a glandular swelling. Early this morning he was seized with a violent
fit of coughing, burst a large artery, and was immediately suffocated
in his blood! This is the sixth death in the course of the first three
months of the year, and we have not as yet a single birth for a set-off.
Say what one will to the negroes, and treat them as well as one can,
obstinate devils, they will die!
APRIL 9.
I had mentioned to Mr. Shand my having found a woman at Hordley, who had
been crippled for life, in consequence of her having been kicked in the
womb by one of the book-keepers. He writes to me on this subject:--“I
trust that conduct so savage occurs rarely in _any_ country. I can only
say, that in my long experience nothing of the kind has ever fallen
under my observation.” Mr. S. then ought to consider _me_ as having
been in high luck. I have not passed six months in Jamaica, and I have
already found on one of my estates a woman who had been kicked in the
womb by a white book-keeper, by which she was crippled herself, and on
another of my estates another woman who had been kicked in the womb by
another white book-keeper, by which he had crippled the child. The name
of the first man and woman were Lory and Jeannette; those of the second
were Full-wood and Martia: and thus, as my two estates are at the two
extremities of the island, I am entitled to say, from my own knowledge
(i.e, speaking _lite-rally_, observe), that “white book-keepers kick
black women in the belly _from one end of Jamaica to the other_.”
APRIL 15. (Wednesday.)
About noon to-day a well-disposed healthy lad of seventeen years of
age was employed in unhaltering the first pair of oxen of one of the
waggons, in doing which he entangled his right leg in the rope. At that
moment the oxen set off full gallop, and dragged the boy along with them
round the whole inclosure, before the other negroes could succeed in
stopping them. However, when the prisoner was extricated, although his
flesh appeared to have been terribly lacerated, no bones were broken,
and he was even able to walk to the hospital without support. He was
blooded instantly, and two physicians were sent for by express. At
two o’clock he was still in perfect possession of his senses, and only
complained of the soreness of his wounds: but in half an hour after
he became apoplectic; sank into a state of utter insensibility, during
which a dreadful rattling in his throat was the only sign of still
existing life, and before six in the evening all was over with him!
APRIL 17.
Pickle had accused his brother-in-law, Edward the Eboe, of having given
him a pleurisy by the practice of Obeah. During my last visit I had
convinced him that the charge was unjust (or at least he had declared
himself to be convinced), and about six weeks ago they came together to
assure me, that ever since they had lived upon the best terms possible.
Unluckily, Pickle’s wife miscarried lately, and for the third time;
previously to which Edward had said, that his wife would remain sole
heiress of the father’s property. This was enough to set the suspicious
brains of these foolish people at work; and to-day Pickle and his
father-in-law, old Damon, came to assure me, that in order to prevent
a child coming to claim its share of the grandfather’s property, Edward
had practised Obeah to make his sister-in-law miscarry; the only proof
of which adduced was the above expression, and the woman’s having
miscarried “just according to Edward’s very words!” To reason with
such very absurd persons was out of the case. I found too, that the two
sisters were quarrelling perpetually, and always on the point of tearing
each other’s eyes out. Therefore, as domestic peace “in a house so
disunited” was out of the question, I ordered the two families to
separate instantly, and to live at the two extremities of the negro
village; at the same time forbidding all intercourse between them
whatsoever: a plan, which was received with approbation by all parties;
and Edward moved his property out of the old man’s house into another
without loss of time. Among other charges of Obeah, Pickle declared,
that his house having been robbed, Edward had told him that Nato was
the offender; and in order to prove it beyond the power of doubt, he
had made him look at something round, “just like massa’s watch,” out of
which he had taken a sentee (a something) which looked like an egg; this
he gave to Pickle, at the same time instructing him to throw it at night
against the door of Nato’s house; which he had no sooner done and broken
the egg, than the very next day Nato’s wife Philippa “began to bawl, and
halloo, and went mad.” Now that Philippa had bawled and hallooed enough
was certainly true; but it was also true that she had confessed her
madness to have been a trick for the purpose of exciting my compassion,
and inducing me to feed her from my own table. Yet was this simple
fellow persuaded that he had made her go mad by the help of his broken
egg, and his old fool of a father-in-law was goose enough to encourage
him in the persuasion.
APRIL 19. (Sunday.)
“And massa,” said Bridget, the doctoress, this morning, “my old mother
a lilly so-so to-day; and him tank massa much for the good supper massa
send last night; and him like it so well.--Laud! massa, the old lady was
just thinking what him could yam (eat) and him no fancy nothing; and
him could no yam salt, and him just wishing for something fresh, when at
that very moment Cu-bina come to him from massa with a stewed pig’s
head so fresh: it seemed just as if massa had got it from the Almighty’s
hands himself.”
APRIL 22.
Naturalists and physicians, philosophers and philanthropists, may argue
and decide as they please; but certainly, as far as mere observation
admits of my judging, there does seem to be a very great difference
between the brain of a black person and a white one. I should think that
Voltaire would call a negro’s reason “_une raison très particulière_.”
Somehow or other, they never can manage to do anything _quite_ as it
should be done. If they correct themselves in one respect to-day they
are sure of making a blunder in some other manner to-morrow. Cubina is
now twenty-five, and has all his life been employed about the stable;
he goes out with my carriage twice every day; yet he has never yet been
able to succeed in putting on the harness properly. Before we get to one
of the plantation gates we are certain of being obliged to stop, and put
something or other to rights: and I once remember having laboured
for more than half an hour to make him understand that the Christmas
holidays came at Christmas; when asked the question, he always
hesitated, and answered, at hap-hazard, “July” or “October.” Yet, Cubina
is far superior in intellect to most of the negroes who have fallen
under my observation. The girl too, whose business it is to open
the house each morning, has in vain been desired to unclose all the
jalousies: she never fails to leave three or four closed, and when she
is scolded for doing so, she takes care to open those three the next
morning, and leaves three shut on the opposite side. Indeed, the attempt
to make them correct a fault is quite fruitless: they never can do the
same thing a second time in the same manner; and if the cook having
succeeded in dressing a dish well is desired to dress just such another,
she is certain of doing something which makes it quite different.
One day I desired, that there might be always a piece of salt meat at
dinner, in order that I might be certain of always having enough to send
to the sick in the hospital. In consequence, there was nothing at dinner
but salt meat. I complained that there was not a single fresh dish, and
the next day, there was nothing but fresh. Sometimes there is scarcely
anything served up, and the cook seems to have forgotten the dinner
altogether: she is told of it; and the next day she slaughters without
mercy pigs, sheep, fowls, ducks, turkeys, and everything that she can
lay her murderous hands upon, till the table absolutely groans under
the load of her labours. For above a month Cubina and I had perpetual
quarrels about the cats being shut into the gallery at nights, where
they threw down plates, glasses, and crockery of all kinds, and
made such a clatter that to get a wink of sleep was quite out of the
question. Cubina, before he went to rest, hunted under all the beds and
sofas, and laid about him with a long whip for half an hour together;
but in half an hour after his departure the cats were at work again. He
was then told, that although he had turned them out, he must certainly
have left some window open: he promised to pay particular attention
to this point, but that night the uproar was worse than ever; yet he
protested that he had carefully turned out all the cats, locked all
the doors, and shut all the windows. He was told, that if he had really
turned out all the cats, the cats must have got in again, and therefore
that he must have left some one window open at least. “No,” he said, “he
had not left one; but a pane in one of the windows had been broken
two months before, and it was there that the cats got in whenever they
pleased.” Yet he had continued to turn the cats out of the door with
the greatest care, although he was perfectly conscious that they could
always walk in again at the window in five minutes after. But the most
curious of Cubina’s modes of proceeding is, when it is necessary for
him to attack the pigeon-house. He steals up the ladder as slily and as
softly as foot can fall; he opens the door, and steals in his head
with the utmost caution; on which, to his never-failing surprise and
disappointment, all the pigeons make their escape through the open
holes; he has now no resource but entering the dove-cot, and remaining
there with unwearied patience for the accidental return of the birds,
which nine times out of ten does not take place till too late for
dinner, and Cubina returns empty-handed. Having observed this
proceeding constantly repeated during a fortnight, I took pity upon his
embarrassment, and ordered two wooden sliders to be fitted to the holes.
Cubina was delighted with this exquisite invention, and failed not
the next morning to close all the holes on the right with one of the
sliders; he then stepped boldly into the dove-cot, when to his utter
confusion the pigeons flew away through the holes on the left. Here then
he discovered where the fault lay, so he lost no time in closing the
remaining aperture with the second slider, and the pigeons were thus
prevented from returning at all. Cubina waited long with exemplary
patience, but without success, so he abandoned the new invention in
despair, made no farther use of the sliders, and continues to steal
up the ladder as he did before. A few days ago, Nicholas, a mulatto
carpenter, was ordered to make a box for the conveyance of four jars of
sweetmeats, of which he took previous measure; yet first he made a box
so small that it would scarcely hold a single jar, and then another so
large that it would have held twenty; and when at length he produced one
of a proper size, he brought it nailed up for travelling (although it
was completely empty), and nailed up so effectually too, that on being
directed to open it that the jars might be packed, he split the cover
to pieces in the attempt to take it off. Yet, among all my negroes,
Nicholas and Cubina are not equalled for adroitness and intelligence by
more than twenty. Judge then what must be the remaining three hundred!
APRIL 23.
In my medical capacity, like a true quack I sometimes perform cures so
unexpected, that I stand like Katterfelto, “with my hair standing on end
at my own wonders.” Last night, Alexander, the second governor, who has
been seriously ill for some days, sent me word, that he was suffering
cruelly from a pain in his head, and could get no sleep. I knew not how
to relieve him; but having frequently observed a violent passion for
perfumes in the house negroes, for want of something else I gave the
doctoress some oil of lavender, and told her to rub two or three drops
upon his nostrils. This morning, he told me that “to be sure what I had
sent him was a grand medicine indeed,” for it had no sooner touched his
nose than he felt some-thing cold run up to his forehead, over his head,
and all the way down his neck to the back-bone; instantly, the headach
left him, he fell fast asleep, nor had the pain returned in the morning.
But I am afraid, that even this wonderful oil would fail of curing a
complaint which was made to me a few days ago. A poor old creature,
named Quasheba, made her appearance at my breakfast table, and told me,
“that she was almost eighty, had been rather weakly for some time past,
and somehow she did not feel as she was by any means right.”
“Had she seen the doctor? Did she want physic?”
“No, she had taken too much physic already, and the doctor would do her
no good; she did not want to see the doctor.”
“But what then was her complaint?”
“Oh! she had no particular complaint; only she was old and weakly, and
did not find herself by any means so well as she used to be, and so
she came just to tell massa, and see what he could do to make her quite
right again, that was all.” In short, she _only_ wanted me to make her
young again!
APRIL 24.
Mr. Forbes is dead. When I was last in Jamaica, he had just been
poisoned with corrosive sublimate by a female slave, who was executed
in consequence. He never was well afterwards; but as he lived
intemperately, the whole blame of his death must not be laid upon the
poison.
APRIL 30.
A free mulatto of the name of Rolph had frequently been mentioned to
me by different magistrates, as remarkable for the numerous complaints
brought against him for cruel treatment of his negroes. He was described
to me as the son of a white ploughman, who at his death left his son
six or seven slaves, with whom he resides in the heart of the mountains,
where the remoteness of the situation secures him from observation or
control. His slaves, indeed, every now and then contrive to escape,
and come down to Savannah la Mar to lodge their complaints; but the
magistrates, hitherto, had never been able to get a legal hold upon him.
However, a few days ago, he entered the house of a Mrs. Edgins, when she
was from home, and behaving in an outrageous manner to her slaves, he
was desired by the head-man to go away. Highly incensed, he answered,
“that if the fellow dared to speak another word, it should be the last
that he should ever utter.” The negro dared to make a rejoinder; upon
which Rolph aimed a blow at him with a stick, which missed his intended
victim, but struck another slave who was interposing to prevent a
scuffle, and killed him upon the spot. The murder was committed in
the presence of several negroes; but negroes are not allowed to give
evidence, and as no free person was present, there are not only doubts
whether the murderer will be punished, but whether he can even be put
upon his trial.
MAY 1. (Friday.)
This morning I signed the manumission of Nicholas Cameron, the best of
my mulatto carpenters. He had been so often on the very point of getting
his liberty, and still the cup was dashed from his lips, that I had
promised to set him free, whenever he could procure an able negro as
his substitute; although being a good workman, a single negro was by
no means an adequate price in exchange. On my arrival this year I found
that he had agreed to pay £150 for a female negro, and the woman was
approved of by my trustee. But on enquiry it appeared that she had a
child, from which she was unwilling to separate, and that her owner
refused to sell the child, except at a most unreasonable price. Here
then was an insurmountable objection to my accepting her, and Nicholas
was told to his great mortification, that he must look out for another
substitute. The woman, on her part, was determined to belong to Cornwall
estate and no other: so she told her owner, that if he attempted to sell
her elsewhere she would make away with herself, and on his ordering
her to prepare for a removal to a neighbouring proprietor’s, she
disappeared, and concealed herself so well, that for some time she was
believed to have put her threats of suicide into execution. The idea of
losing his £150 frightened her master so completely, that he declared
himself ready to let me have the child at a fair price, as well as the
mother, if she ever should be found; and her friends having conveyed
this assurance to her, she thought proper to emerge from her
hiding-place, and the bargain was arranged finally. The titles, however,
were not yet made out, and as the time of my departure for Hordley was
arrived, these were ordered to be got ready against my return, when
the negroes were to be delivered over to me, and Nicholas was to be
set free. In the meanwhile, the child was sent by her mistress (a free
mulatto) to hide some stolen ducks upon a distant property, and on her
return blabbed out the errand: in consequence the mistress was committed
to prison for theft; and no sooner was she released, than she revenged
herself upon the poor girl by giving her thirty lashes with the
cattle-whip, inflicted with all the severity of vindictive malice. This
treatment of a child of such tender years reduced her to such a state,
as made the magistrates think it right to send her for protection to the
workhouse, until the conduct of the mistress should have been enquired
into. In the meanwhile, as the result of the enquiry might be the
setting the girl at liberty, the joint title for her and her mother
could not be made out, and thus poor Nicholas’s manumission was at a
stand-still again. The magistrates at length decided, that although the
chastisement had been severe, yet (according to the medical report) it
was not such as to authorise the sending the mistress to be tried at the
assizes. She was accordingly dismissed from farther investigation, and
the girl was once more considered as belonging to me, as soon as the
title could be made out. But the fatality which had so often prevented
Nicholas from obtaining his freedom, was not weary yet. On the very
morning, when he was to sign the title, a person whose signature was
indispensable, was thrown out of his chaise, the wheel of which passed
over his head, and he was rendered incapable of transacting business
for several weeks. Yesterday, the titles were at length brought to me
complete, and this morning put Nicholas in possession of the object, in
the pursuit of which he has experienced such repeated disappointments.
The conduct of the poor child’s mulatto mistress in this case was
most unpardonable, and is only one of numerous instances of a similar
description, which have been mentioned to me. Indeed, I have every
reason to believe, that nothing can be uniformly more wretched, than the
life of the slaves of free people of colour in Jamaica; nor would any
thing contribute more to the relief of the black population, than the
prohibiting by law any mulatto to become the owner of a slave for the
future. Why should not rich people of colour be served by poor people of
colour, hiring them as domestics? It seldom happens that mulattoes are
in possession of plantations; but when a white man dies, who happens
to possess twenty negroes, he will divide them among his brown family,
leaving (we may say) five to each of his four children. These are too
few to be employed in plantation work; they are, therefore, ordered
to maintain their owner by some means or other, and which means are
frequently not the most honest, the most frequent being the travelling
about as higglers, and exchanging the trumpery contents of their packs
and boxes with plantation negroes for stolen rum and sugar. I confess I
cannot see why, on such bequest being made, the law should not order
the negroes to be sold, and the produce of the sale paid to the
mulatto heirs, but absolutely prohibiting the mulattoes from becoming
proprietors of the negroes themselves. Every man of humanity must wish
that slavery, even in its best and most mitigated form, had never found
a legal sanction, and must regret that its system is now so incorporated
with the welfare of Great Britain as well as of Jamaica, as to make
its extirpation an absolute impossibility, without the certainty
of producing worse mischiefs than the one which we annihilate. But
certainly there can be no sort of occasion for continuing in the
colonies the existence of _do-mestic slavery_, which neither contributes
to the security of the colonies themselves, nor to the opulence of the
mother-country, the revenue of which derived from colonial duties would
suffer no defalcation whatever, even if neither whites nor blacks in the
West Indies were suffered to employ slaves, except in plantation labour.
MAY 2.