From the painful contemplation of all this outrage and wrong, the mind

is relieved by turning to the present state of the colony. It cannot be

denied that much oppression grows out of the apprenticeship system, both

from its essential nature, and from the want of virtuous principle and

independence in the men who administer it. Yet it is certainly true that

there has been a very great diminution in the amount of actual cruelty.

The total abolition of flogging on the estates, the prohibition to use

the dungeons, and depriving the masters, managers, overseers and

drivers, of the right to punish in any case, or in any way whatever,

leave no room for doubt on this subject. It is true, that the laws are

often violated, but this can only take place in cases of excessive

passion, and it is not likely to be a very frequent occurrence. The

penalty of the law is so heavy,[A] and the chances of detection[B] are

so great, that in all ordinary circumstances they will be a sufficient

security against the violence of the master. On the other hand, the

special magistrates themselves seldom use the whip, but resort to other

modes of punishment less cruel and degrading. Besides, it is manifest

that if they did use the whip and were ever so cruelly disposed, it

would be physically impossible for them to inflict as much suffering as

the drivers could during slavery; on account of the vast numbers over

whom they preside. We learned from the apprentices themselves, by

conversing with them, that their condition, in respect to treatment, is

incomparably better than it was during slavery. We were satisfied from

our observations and inquiries, that the planters, at least the more

extensive and enlightened ones, conduct their estates on different

principles from those formerly followed. Before the abolition of

slavery, they regarded the _whip_ as absolutely necessary to the

cultivation of sugar, and hence they uniformly used it, and loudly

deprecated its abolition as being _their_ certain ruin. But since the

whip has been abolished, and the planters have found that the negroes

continue, nevertheless, industrious and subordinate, they have changed

their measures, partly from necessity, and partly from policy, have

adopted a conciliatory course.

[Footnote A: A fine of sixteen dollars for the first assault, and the

liberation of the apprentice after a second.]

[Footnote B: Through the complaint of the apprentice to the special

magistrate]

Barbadoes was not without its insurrections during slavery. Although not

very frequent, they left upon the minds of the white colonists this

conviction, (repeatedly expressed to us by planters and others,) that

_slavery and rebellions are inseparable_. The last widely extended

insurrection occurred in 1816, in the eastern part of the island. Some

of the particulars were given us by a planter who resided to that

region, and suffered by it great loss of property. The plot was so

cautiously laid, and kept so secret, that no one suspected it. The

planter observed that if any one had told him that such a thing was

brewing _ten minutes_ before it burst forth, he would not have credited

the statement. It began with firing the cane-fields. A signal was given

by a man setting fire to a pile of trash on an elevated spot, when

instantly the fires broke out in every direction, and in less than a

half hour, more than one hundred estates were in flames. The planters

and their families, in the utmost alarm, either fled into other parts of

the island, or seized their arms and hurriedly mustered in self-defence.

Meanwhile the negroes, who had banded themselves in numerous companies,

took advantage of the general consternation, proceeded to the deserted

mansions of the planters, broke down the doors, battered in the windows,

destroyed all the furniture, and carried away the provision stores to

their own houses.

These ravages continued for three days, during which, the slaves flocked

together in increasing numbers; in one place there were several

thousands assembled. Above five hundred of the insurgents were shot down

by the militia, before they could be arrested. The destruction of

property during the rebellion was loosely estimated at many hundred

thousand pounds. The canes on many estates were almost wholly burned; so

that extensive properties, which ordinarily yielded from two to three

hundred hogsheads, did not make more than fifteen or twenty.

Our informant mentioned two circumstances which he considered

remarkable. One was, that the insurgents never touched the property of

the estates to which they severally belonged; but went to the

neighboring or more distant estates. The other was, that during the

whole insurrection the negroes did not make a single attempt to destroy

life. On the other hand, the sacrifice of negroes during the rebellion,

and subsequent to it, was appalling. It was a long time before the white

man's thirst for blood could be satiated.

No general insurrection occurred after this one. However, as late as

1823, the proprietor of Mount Wilton--the noblest estate in the

island--was murdered by his slaves in a most horrid manner. A number of

men entered his bed-chamber at night. He awoke ere they reached him, and

grasped his sword, which always hung by his bed, but it was wrested from

his hand, and he was mangled and killed. His death was caused by his

_cruelties_, and especially by his _extreme licentiousness_. All the

females on this estate were made successively the victims of his lust.

This, together with his cruelties, so incensed the men, that they

determined to murder the wretch. Several of them were publicly executed.

Next to the actual occurrence of rebellions, _the fear of them_ deserves

to be enumerated among the evils which slavery entailed upon Barbadoes.

The dread of hurricanes to the people of Barbadoes is tolerable in

comparison with the irrepressible apprehensions of bloody rebellions. A

planter told us that he seldom went to bed without thinking he might be

murdered before morning.

But now the whites are satisfied that slavery was the sole instigator of

rebellions, and since its removal they have no fear on this score.

_Licentiousness_ was another of the fruits of slavery. It will be

difficult to give to the reader a proper conception of the prevalence of

this vice in Barbadoes, and of the consequent demoralization. A numerous

colored population were both the offspring and the victims of it. On a

very moderate calculation, nineteen-twentieths of the present adult

colored race are illegitimate. Concubinage was practised among the

highest classes. Young merchants and others who were unmarried, on first

going to the island, regularly engaged colored females to live with them

as housekeepers and mistresses, and it was not unusual for a man to have

more than one. The children of these connections usually sat with the

mothers at the father's table, though when the gentlemen had company,

neither mothers nor children made their appearance. To such conduct no

disgrace was attached, nor was any shame felt by either party. We were

assured that there are in Bridgetown, colored ladies of

"respectability," who, though never married, have large families of

children whose different surnames indicate their difference of

parentage, but who probably do not know their fathers by any other

token. These remarks apply to the towns. The morals of the estates were

still more deplorable. The managers and overseers, commonly unmarried,

left no female virtue unattempted. Rewards sometimes, but oftener the

whip, or the dungeon, gave them the mastery in point of fact, which the

laws allowed in theory. To the slaves marriage was scarcely known. They

followed the example of the master, and were ready to minister to his

lust. The mass of mulatto population grew paler as it multiplied, and

catching the refinement along with the tint of civilization, waged a war

upon marriage which had well nigh expelled it from the island. Such was

Barbadoes under the auspices of slavery.

Although these evils still exist, yet, since the abolition of slavery,

there is one symptom of returning purity, the _sense of shame_.

Concubinage is becoming disreputable. The colored females are growing in

self-respect, and are beginning to seek regular connections with colored

men. They begin to feel (to use the language of one of them) that the

_light is come_, and that they can no longer have the apology of

ignorance to plead for their sin. It is the prevailing impression among

whites, colored, and blacks, that open licentiousness cannot long

survive slavery.

_Prejudice_ was another of the concomitants of slavery. Barbadoes was

proverbial for it. As far as was practicable, the colored people were

excluded from all business connections; though merchants were compelled

to make clerks of them for want of better, that is, _whiter_, ones.

Colored merchants of wealth were shut out of the merchants' exchange,

though possessed of untarnished integrity, while white men were admitted

as subscribers without regard to character. It was not a little

remarkable that the rooms occupied as the merchants' exchange were

rented from a colored gentleman, or more properly, a _negro_;[A] who,

though himself a merchant of extensive business at home and abroad, and

occupying the floor below with a store, was not suffered to set his foot

within them. This merchant, it will be remembered, is educating a son

for a learned profession at the university of Edinburgh. Colored

gentlemen were not allowed to become members of literary associations,

nor subscribers to the town libraries. Social intercourse was utterly

interdicted. To visit the houses of such men as we have already

mentioned in a previous chapter, and especially to sit down at their

tables, would have been a loss of caste; although the gentry were at the

same time living with colored concubines. But most of all did this

wicked prejudice delight to display itself in the churches. Originally,

we believe, the despised color was confined to the galleries, afterwards

it was admitted to the seats under the galleries, and ultimately it was

allowed to extend to the body pews below the cross aisle. If perchance

one of the proscribed class should ignorantly stray beyond these

precincts, and take a seat above the cross aisle, he was instantly, if

not forcibly, removed. Every opportunity was maliciously seized to taunt

the colored people with their complexion. A gentleman of the highest

worth stated that several years ago he applied to the proper officer for

a license to be married. The license was accordingly made out and handed

to him. It was expressed in the following insulting style: "T---- H----,

F.M., is licensed to marry H---- L----, F.C.W." The initials F.M. stood

for _free mulatto_, and F.C.W. for _free colored woman_! The gentleman

took his knife and cut out the initials; and was then threatened with a

prosecution for forging his license.

[Footnote A: Mr. London Bourne, the merchant mentioned in the previous

chapter.]

It must be admitted that this cruel feeling still exists in Barbadoes.

Prejudice is the last viper of the slavery-gendered brood that dies. But

it is evidently growing weaker. This the reader will infer from several

facts already stated. The colored people themselves are indulging

sanguine hopes that prejudice will shortly die away. They could discover

a bending on the part of the whites, and an apparent readiness to

concede much of the ground hitherto withheld. They informed us that they

had received intimations that they might be admitted as subscribers to

the merchants' exchange if they would apply; but they were in no hurry

to make the advances themselves. They felt assured that not only

business equality, but social equality, would soon be theirs, and were

waiting patiently for the course of events to bring them. They have too

much self-respect to sue for the consideration of their white neighbors,

or to accept it as a condescension and favor, when by a little patience

they might obtain it on more honorable terms. It will doubtless be found

in Barbadoes, as it has been in other countries--and perchance to the

mortification of some lordlings--that freedom is a mighty leveller of

human distinctions. The pyramid of pride and prejudice which slavery had

upreared there, must soon crumble in the dust.

_Indolence and inefficiency among the whites_, was another prominent

feature in slaveholding Barbadoes. Enterprise, public and personal, has

long been a stranger to the island. Internal improvements, such as the

laying and repairing of roads, the erection of bridges, building

wharves, piers, &c., were either wholly neglected, or conducted in such

a listless manner as to be a burlesque on the name of business. It was a

standing task, requiring the combined energy of the island, to repair

the damages of one hurricane before another came. The following

circumstance was told us, by one of the shrewdest observers of men and

things with whom we met in Barbadoes. On the southeastern coast of the

island there is a low point running far out into the sea, endangering

all vessels navigated by persons not well acquainted with the island.

Many vessels have been wrecked upon it in the attempt to make Bridgetown

from the windward. From time immemorial, it has been in contemplation to

erect a light-house on that point. Every time a vessel has been wrecked,

the whole island has been agog for a light-house. Public meetings were

called, and eloquent speeches made, and resolutions passed, to proceed

to the work forthwith. Bills were introduced into the assembly, long

speeches made, and appropriations voted commensurate with the stupendous

undertaking. There the matter ended, and the excitement died away, only

to be revived by another wreck, when a similar scene would ensue. The

light-house is not built to this day. In personal activity, the

Barbadians are as sadly deficient as in public spirit. London is said to

have scores of wealthy merchants who have never been beyond its limits,

nor once snuffed the country air. Bridgetown, we should think, is in

this respect as deserving of the name _Little London_ as Barbadoes is of

the title "Little England," which it proudly assumes. We were credibly

informed that there were merchants in Bridgetown who had never been off

the island in their lives, nor more than five or six miles into the

country. The sum total of their locomotion might be said to be, turning

softly to one side of their chairs, and then softly to the other. Having

no personal cares to harass them, and no political questions to agitate

them--having no extended speculations to push, and no public enterprises

to prosecute, (save occasionally when a wreck on the southern point

throws them into a ferment,) the lives of the higher classes seem a

perfect blank, as it regards every thing manly. Their thoughts are

chiefly occupied with sensual pleasure, anticipated or enjoyed. The

centre of existence to them is the _dinner-table_.

"They eat and drink and sleep, and then--

Eat and drink and sleep again."

That the abolition of slavery has laid the foundation for a reform in

this respect, there can be no doubt. The indolence and inefficiency of

the white community has grown out of slavery. It is the legitimate

offspring of oppression everywhere--one of the burning curses which it

never fails to visit upon its supporters. It may be seriously doubted,

however, whether in Barbadoes this evil will terminate with its cause.

There is there such a superabundance of the laboring population, that

for a long time to come, labor must be very cheap, and the habitually

indolent will doubtless prefer employing others to work for them, than

to work themselves. If, therefore, we should not see an active spirit of

enterprise at once kindling among the Barbadians, _if the light-house

should not be build for a quarter of a century to come_, it need not

excite our astonishment.

We heard not a little concerning the expected distress of those white

families whose property consisted chiefly of slaves. There were many

such families, who have hitherto lived respectably and independently by

hiring out their slaves. After 1840, these will be deprived of all their

property, and will have no means of support whatever. As they will

consider it degrading to work, and still more so to beg, they will be

thrown into extremely embarrassing circumstances. It is thought that

many of this class will leave the country, and seek a home where they

will not be ashamed to work for their subsistence. We were forcibly

reminded of the oft alleged objection to emancipation in the United

States, that it would impoverish many excellent families in the South,

and drive delicate females to the distaff and the wash-tub, whose hands

have never been used to any thing--_rougher than the cowhide_. Much

sympathy has been awakened in the North by such appeals, and vast

numbers have been led by them to conclude that it is better for millions

of slaves to famish in eternal bondage, than that a few white families,

here and there scattered over the South, should be reduced to the

humiliation of _working_.

_Hostility to emancipation_ prevailed in Barbadoes. That island has

always been peculiarly attached to slavery. From the beginning of the

anti-slavery agitations in England, the Barbadians distinguished

themselves by their inveterate opposition. As the grand result

approximated they increased their resistance. They appealed,

remonstrated, begged, threatened, deprecated, and imprecated. They

continually protested that abolition would ruin the colony--that the

negroes could never be brought to work--especially to raise

sugar--without the whip. They both besought and demanded of the English

that they should cease their interference with their private affairs and

personal property.

Again and again they informed them that they were wholly disqualified,

by their distance from the colonies, and their ignorance of the subject,

to do any thing respecting it, and they were entreated to leave the

whole matter with the colonies, who alone could judge as to the best

time and manner of moving, or whether it was proper to move at all.

We were assured that there was not a single planter in Barbadoes who was

known to be in favor of abolition, before it took place; if, however,

there had been one such, he would not have dared to avow his sentiments.

The anti-slavery party in England were detested; no epithets were too

vile for them--no curses too bitter. It was a Barbadian lady who once

exclaimed in a public company in England, "O, I wish we had Wilberforce

in the West Indies, I would be one of the very first to tear his heart

out!" If such a felon wish could escape the lips of a female, and that

too amid the awing influence of English society, what may we conclude

were the feelings of planters and drivers on the island!

The opposition was maintained even after the abolition of slavery; and

there was no colony, save Jamaica, with which the English government had

so much trouble in arranging the provisions and conditions under which

abolition was to take place.

From statements already made, the reader will see how great a change has

come over the feelings of the planters.

He has followed us through this and the preceding chapters, he has seen

tranquillity taking the place of insurrections, a sense of security

succeeding to gloomy forbodings, and public order supplanting mob law;

he has seen subordination to authority, peacefulness, industry, and

increasing morality, characterizing the negro population; he has seen

property rising in value, crime lessening, expenses of labor

diminishing, the whole island blooming with unexampled cultivation, and

waving with crops unprecedented in the memory of its inhabitants; above

all, he has seen licentiousness decreasing, prejudice fading away,

marriage extending, education spreading, and religion preparing to

multiply her churches and missionaries over the land.

_These_ are the blessing of abolition--_begun_ only, and but partially

realized as yet, but promising a rich maturity in time to come, after

the work of freedom shall have been completed.

CHAPTER V.

THE APPRENTICESHIP SYSTEM.

The nature of the apprenticeship system may be learned form the

following abstract of its provisions, relative to the three parties

chiefly concerned in its operation--the special magistrate, the master,

and the apprentice.

PROVISIONS RESPECTING THE SPECIAL MAGISTRATES.

1. They must be disconnected with planters and plantership, that they

may be independent of all colonial parties and interests whatever.

2. The special magistrates adjudicate only in cases where the master and

apprentice are parties. Offences committed by apprentices against any

person not connected with the estates on which they live, come under the

cognizance of the local magistrates or of higher courts.

3. The special justices sit three days in the week at their offices,

where all complaints are carried, both by the master and apprentice. The

magistrates do not go the estate, either to try or to punish offenders.

Besides, the three days the magistrates are required to be at home every

Saturday, (that being the day on which the apprentices are disengaged,)

to give friendly advice and instruction on points of law and personal

rights to all apprentices who may call.

PROVISIONS RESPECTING THE MASTER.

1. The master is allowed the gratuitous labor of the apprentice for

forty-five hours each week. The several islands were permitted by the

English government to make such a division of this time as local

circumstances might seem to require. In some islands, as for instance in

St. Christopher's and Tortola, it is spread over six days of the week in

proportions of seven and a half hours per day, thus leaving the

apprentice mere shreds of time in which he can accomplish nothing for

himself. In Barbadoes, the forty-five hours is confined within five

days, in portions of nine hours per day.

2. The allowances of food continue the same as during slavery, excepting

that now the master may give, instead of the allowance, a third of an

acre to each apprentice, but then he must also grant an additional day

every week for the cultivation of this land.

3. The master has no power whatever to punish. A planter observed, "if I

command my butler to stand for half an hour on the parlor floor, and it

can be proved that I designed it as a punishment, I may be fined for

it." The penalty for the first offence (punishing an apprentice) is a

fine of five pounds currency, or sixteen dollars, and imprisonment if

the punishment was cruel. For a second offence the apprentice is

set free.

Masters frequently do punish their apprentices _in despite of all

penalties_. A case in point occurred not long since, in Bridgetown. A

lady owned a handsome young mulatto woman, who had a beautiful head of

hair of which she was very proud. The servant did something displeasing

to her mistress, and the latter in a rage shaved off her hair close to

her head. The girl complained to the special magistrate, and procured an

immediate release from her mistress's service.

4. It is the duty of the master to make complaint to the special

magistrate. When the master chooses to take the punishment into his own

hand, the apprentice has a right to complain.

5. The master is obliged to sell the remainder of the apprentice's term,

whenever the apprentice signifies a wish to buy it. If the parties

cannot agree about the price, the special magistrate, in connection with

two local magistrates, appraises the latter, and the master is bound to

take the amount of the appraisement, whatever that is. Instances of

apprentices purchasing themselves are quite frequent, not withstanding

the term of service is now so short, extending only to August, 1840. The

value of an apprentice varies from thirty to one hundred dollars.

PROVISIONS RESPECTING THE APPRENTICE.

1. He has the whole of Saturday, and the remnants of the other five

days, after giving nine hours to the master.

2. The labor does not begin so early, nor continue so late as during

slavery. Instead of half past four or five o'clock the apprentices are

called out at six o'clock in the morning. They then work till seven,

have an hour for breakfast, again work from eight to twelve, have a

respite of two hours, and then work till six o'clock.

3. If an apprentice hires his time from his master as is not

unfrequently the case, especially among the non-praedials, he pays a

dollar a week, which is two thirds, or at least one half of

his earnings.

4. If the apprentice has a complaint to make against his master, he must

either make it during his own time, or if he prefers to go to the

magistrate during work hours, he must ask his master for a pass. If his

master refuse to give him one, he can then go without it.

5. There is an _unjustifiable inequality_ in the apprentice laws, which

was pointed out by one of the special magistrates. The master is

punishable only for cruelty or corporeal inflictions, whereas the

apprentice is punishable for a variety of offences, such as idleness,

stealing, insubordination, insolence, &c. The master may be as insolent

and abusive as he chooses to be, and the slave can have no redress.

6. Hard labor, solitary confinement, and the treadmill, are the

principal modes of punishment. Shaving the head is sometimes resorted

to. A very sever punishment frequently adopted, is requiring the

apprentice to make up for the time during which he is confined. If he is

committed for ten working days, he must give the master ten successive

Saturdays.

This last regulation is particularly oppressive and palpably unjust. It

matters not how slight the offence may have been, it is discretionary

with the special magistrate to mulct the apprentice of his Saturdays.

This provision really would appear to have been made expressly for the

purpose of depriving the apprentices of their own time. It is a direct

inducement to the master to complain. If the apprentice has been absent

from his work but an hour, the magistrate may sentence him to give a

whole day in return; consequently the master is encouraged to mark the

slightest omission, and to complain of it whether it was unavoidable

or not.

THE DESIGN OF THE APPRENTICESHIP.--It is a serious question with a

portion of the colonists, whether or not the apprenticeship was

originally designed as a preparation for freedom. This however was the

professed object with its advocates, and it was on the strength of this

plausible pretension, doubtless, that the measure was carried through.

We believe it is pretty well understood, both in England and the

colonies; that it was mainly intended _as an additional compensation to

the planters_. The latter complained that the twenty millions of pounds

was but a pittance of the value of their slaves, and to drown their

cries about robbery and oppression this system of modified slavery was

granted to them, that they might, for a term of years, enjoy the toil of

the negro without compensation. As a mockery to the hopes of the slaves

this system was called an apprenticeship, and it was held out to them as

a needful preparatory stage for them to pass through, ere they could

rightly appreciate the blessings of entire freedom. It was not wonderful

that they should be slow to apprehend the necessity of serving a six

years' apprenticeship, at a business which they had been all their lives

employed in. It is not too much to say that it was a grand cheat--a

national imposture at the expense of the poor victims of oppression,

whom, with benevolent pretences, it offered up a sacrifice to cupidity

and power.

PRACTICAL OPERATION OF THE APPRENTICESHIP.--It cannot be denied that

this system is in some respects far better than slavery. Many restraints

are imposed upon the master, and many important privileges are secured

to the apprentice. Being released from the arbitrary power of the

master, is regarded by the latter as a vast stride towards entire

liberty. We once asked an apprentice; if he thought apprenticeship was

better than slavery. "O yes," said he, "great deal better, sir; when we

was slaves, our masters git mad wid us, and give us _plenty of licks_;

but now, thank God, they can't touch us." But the actual enjoyment of

these advantages by the apprentices depends upon so many contingencies,

such as the disposition of the master, and the faithfulness of the

special magistrate, that it is left after all exceedingly precarious. A

very few observations respecting the special magistrates, will serve to

show how liable the apprentice is to suffer wrong without the

possibility of obtaining redress. It is evident that this will be the

case unless the special magistrates are _entirely independent_. This was

foreseen by the English government, and they pretended to provide for it

by paying the magistrates' salaries at home. But how inadequate was

their provision! The salaries scarcely answer for pocket money in the

West Indies. Thus situated, the magistrates are continually exposed to

those temptations, which the planters can so artfully present in the

shape of sumptuous dinners. They doubtless find it very convenient, when

their stinted purses run low, and mutton and wines run high, to do as

the New England school master does, "_board round_;" and consequently

the dependence of the magistrate upon the planter is of all things the

most deprecated by the apprentice.[A]

[Footnote A: The feelings of apprentices on this point are well

illustrated by the following anecdote, which was related to us while in

the West Indies. The governor of one of the islands, shortly after his

arrival, dined with one of the wealthiest proprietors. The next day one

of the negroes of the estate said to another, "De new gubner been

_poison'd_." "What dat you say?" inquired the other in astonishment, "De

gubner been _poison'd_." "Dah, now!--How him poisoned!" "_Him eat massa

turtle soup last night_," said the shrewd negro. The other took his

meaning at once; and his sympathy for the governor was turned into

concern for himself, when he perceived that the poison was one from

which _he_ was likely to suffer more than his excellency.]

Congeniality of feeling, habits, views, style and rank--identity of

country and color--these powerful influences bias the magistrate toward

the master, at the same time that the absence of them all, estrange and

even repel him from the apprentice. There is still an additional

consideration which operates against the unfortunate apprentice. The men

selected for magistrates, are mostly officers of the army and navy. To

those who are acquainted with the arbitrary habits of military and naval

officers, and with the iron despotism which they exercise among the

soldiers and sailors,[B] the bare mention of this fact is sufficient to

convince them of the unenviable situation of the apprentice. It is at

best but a gloomy transfer from the mercies of a slave driver, to the

justice of a military magistrate.

[Footnote B: We had a specimen of the stuff special magistrates are made

of in sailing from Barbadoes to Jamaica. The vessel was originally an

English man-of-war brig, which had been converted into a steamer, and

was employed by the English government, in conveying the island mails

from Barbadoes to Jamaica--to and fro. She was still under the strict

discipline of a man-of-war. The senior officer on board was a

lieutenant. This man was one of the veriest savages on earth. His

passions were in a perpetual storm, at some times higher than at others,

occasionally they blew a hurricane. He quarrelled with his officers, and

his orders to his men were always uttered in oaths. Scarcely a day

passed that he did not have some one of his sailors flogged. One night,

the cabin boy left the water-can sitting on the cabin floor, instead of

putting it on the sideboard, where it usually stood. For this offence

the commander ordered him up on deck after midnight, and made the

quarter-master flog him. The instrument used in this case, (the regular

flogging stick having been _used up_ by previous service,) was the

commander's cane--_a heavy knotted club_. The boy held out one hand and

received the blows. He howled most piteously, and it was some seconds

before he recovered sufficiently from the pain to extend the other.

"_Lay on_," stormed the commander. Down went the cane a second time. We

thought it must have broken every bone in the boy's hand. This was

repeated several times, the boy extending each hand alternately, and

recoiling at every blow. "Now lay on to his back," sternly vociferated

the commander--"give it to him--_hard_--_lay on harder_." The old

seaman, who had some mercy in his heart, seemed very loth to lay out his

strength on the boy with such a club. The commander became

furious--cursed and swore--and again yelled, "_Give it to him harder,

more_--MORE--MORE--there, stop." "you infernal villain"--speaking to the

quarter-master and using the most horrid oaths--"You infernal villain,

if you do not _lay on harder_ the next time I command you, I'll have you

put in irons." The boy limped away, writhing in every joint, and crying

piteously, when the commander called at him, "Silence there, you imp--or

I'll give you a second edition." One of the first things the commander

did after we left Barbadoes, was to have a man flogged, and the last

order we heard him give as we left the steamer at Kingston, was to put

two of the men _in irons_.]

It is not a little remarkable that the apprenticeship should be regarded

by the planters themselves, as well as by other persons generally

throughout the colony, as merely a modified form of slavery. It is

common to hear it called 'slavery under a different form,' 'another name

for slavery,'--'modified slavery,' 'but little better than slavery.'

Nor is the practical operation of the system upon the _master_ much less

exceptionable. It takes out of his hand the power of coercing labor, and

provides no other stimulus. Thus it subjects him to the necessity either

of resorting to empty threats, which must result only in incessant

disputes, or of condescending to persuade and entreat, against which his

habits at once rebel, or of complaining to a third party--an alternative

more revolting if possible, than the former, since it involves the

acknowledgment of a higher power than his own. It sets up over his

actions a foreign judge, at whose bar he is alike amenable (in theory)

with his apprentice, before whose tribunal he may be dragged at any

moment by his apprentice, and from whose lips he may receive the

humiliating sentence of punishment in the presence of his apprentice. It

introduces between him and his laborers, mutual repellancies and

estrangement; it encourages the former to exercise an authority which he

would not venture to assume under a system of perfect freedom; it

emboldens the latter to display an insolence which he would not have

dreamed of in a state of slavery, and thus begetting in the one, the

imperiousness of the slaveholder _without his power_, and in the other,

the independence of the freeman _without his immunities_, it perpetuates

a scene of angry collision, jealousy and hatred.

It does not even serve for the master the unworthy purpose for which it

was mainly devised, viz., that of an additional compensation. The

apprenticeship is estimated to be more expensive than a system of free

labor would be. It is but little less expensive than slavery, and

freedom it is confidently expected will be considerably less. So it

would seem that this system burthens the master with much of the

perplexity, the ignominy and the expensiveness of slavery, while it

denies him its power. Such is the apprenticeship system. A splendid

imposition!--which cheats the planter of his gains, cheats the British

nation of its money, and robs the world of what else might have been a

glorious example of immediate and entire emancipation.

THE APPRENTICESHIP IS NO PREPARATION FOR FREEDOM.--Indeed, as far as it

can be, it is an actual _disqualification_. The testimony on this

subject is ample. We rarely met a planter, who was disposed to maintain

that the apprenticeship was preparing the negroes for freedom. They

generally admitted that the people were no better prepared for freedom

now, than they were in 1834; and some of them did not hesitate to say

that the sole use to which they and their brother planters turned the

system, was to get _as much work out of the apprentices while it lasted,

as possible_. Clergymen and missionaries, declared that the

apprenticeship was no preparation for freedom. If it were a preparation

at all, it would most probably be so in a religious and educational

point of view. We should expect to find the masters, if laboring at all

to prepare their apprentices for freedom, doing so chiefly by

encouraging missionaries and teachers to come to their estates, and by

aiding in the erection of chapels and school-houses. But the

missionaries declare that they meet with little more direct

encouragement now, than they did during slavery.

The special magistrates also testify that the apprenticeship is no

preparation for freedom. On this subject they are very explicit.

The colored people bear the same testimony. Not a few, too, affirm, that

the tendency of the apprenticeship is to unfit the negroes for freedom,

and avow it as their firm persuasion, that the people will be less

prepared for liberty at the end of the apprenticeship, than they were at

its commencement. And it is not without reason that they thus speak.

They say, first, that the bickerings and disputes to which the system

gives rise between the master and the apprentice, and the arraigning of

each other before the special magistrate, are directly calculated to

alienate the parties. The effect of these contentions, kept up for six

years, will be to implant _deep mutual hostility_; and the parties will

be a hundred fold more irreconcilable than they were on the abolition of

slavery. Again, they argue that the apprenticeship system is calculated

to make the negroes regard _law as their foe_, and thus it unfits them

for freedom. They reason thus--the apprentice looks to the magistrate as

his judge, his avenger, his protector; he knows nothing of either law or

justice except as he sees them exemplified in the decisions of the

magistrate. When, therefore, the magistrate sentences him to punishment,

when he knows he was the injured party, he will become disgusted with

the very name of justice, and esteem law his greatest enemy.

The neglect of the planters to use the apprenticeship as a preparation

for freedom, warrants us in the conclusion, that they do not think any

preparation necessary. But we are not confined to doubtful inferences on

this point. They testify positively--and not only planters, but all

other classes of men likewise--that the slaves of Barbadoes were fit for

entire freedom in 1834, and that they might have been emancipated then

with perfect safety. Whatever may have been the sentiment of the

Barbadians relative to the necessity of preparation before the

experiment was made, it is clear that now they have no confidence either

in the necessity or the practicability of preparatory schemes.

But we cannot close our remarks upon the apprenticeship system without

noticing one good end which it has undesignedly accomplished, i.e., _the

illustration of the good disposition of the colored people_. We firmly

believe that if the friends of emancipation had wished to disprove all

that has ever been said about the ferocity and revengefulness of the

negroes, and at the same time to demonstrate that they possess, in a

pre-eminent degree, those other qualities which render them the fit

subjects of liberty and law, they could not have done it more

triumphantly than it has been done by the apprenticeship. _How_ this has

been done may be shown by pointing out several respects in which the

apprenticeship has been calculated to try the negro character most

severely, and to develop all that was fiery and rebellious in it.

1. The apprenticeship removed that strong arm of slavery and substituted

no adequate force. The arbitrary power of the master, which awed the

slave into submission, was annihilated. The whip which was held over the

slave, and compelled a kind of subordination--brutal, indeed, but

effectual--was abolished. Here in the outset the reins were given to the

long-oppressed, but now aspiring mass. No adequate force was

substituted, because it was the intent of the new system to govern by

milder means. This was well, but what were the milder means which were

to take the place of brute force?

2. Was the stimulus of wages substituted? No! That was expressly denied.

Was the liberty of locomotion granted? No. Was the privilege of gaining

a personal interest in the soil extended to them? No. Were the

immunities and rights of citizenship secured to them? No. Was the poor

favor allowed them of selecting their own business, or of choosing their

employer? Not even this? Thus far, then, we see nothing of the milder

measures of the apprenticeship. It has indeed opened the prison doors

and knocked off the prisoners' chains--but it still keeps them grinding

there, as before, and refuses to let them come forth, except

occasionally, and then only to be thrust back again. Is it not thus

directly calculated to encourage indolence and insubordination?

3. In the next place, this system introduces a third party, to whom the

apprentice is encouraged to look for justice, redress, and counsel. Thus

he is led to regard his master as his enemy, and all confidence in him

is for ever destroyed. But this is not the end of the difficulty. The

apprentice carries up complaints against his master. If they gain a

favorable hearing he triumphs over him--if they are disregarded, he

concludes that the magistrate also is his enemy, and he goes away with a

rankling grudge against his master. Thus he is gradually led to assert

his own cause, and he learns to contend with his master, to reply

insolently, to dispute, quarrel, and--it is well that we cannot add, to

_fight_. At least one thing is the result--a permanent state of

alienation, contempt of authority, and hatred. _All these are the fruits

of the apprenticeship system_. They are caused by transferring the power

of the master, while the _relation_ continues the same. Nor is this

contempt for the master, this alienation and hatred, all the mischief.

The unjust decisions of the magistrate, of which the apprentices have

such abundant reasons to complain, excite their abhorrence of him, and

thus their confidence in the protection of law is weakened or destroyed.

Here, then, is contempt for the master, abhorrence of the magistrate,

and mistrust of the law--the apprentice regarding all three as leagued

together to rob him of his rights. What a combination of circumstances

to drive the apprentices to desperation and madness! What a marvel that

the outraged negroes have been restrained from bloody rebellions!

Another insurrectionary feature peculiar to the apprenticeship is its

making the apprentices _free a portion of the time_. One fourth of the

time is given them every week--just enough to afford them a taste of the

sweets of liberty, and render them dissatisfied with their condition.

Then the manner in which this time is divided is calculated to irritate.

After being a slave nine hours, the apprentice is made a freeman for the

remainder of the day; early the next morning the halter is again put on,

and he treads the wheel another day. Thus the week wears away until

Saturday; which is an entire day of freedom. The negro goes out and

works for his master, or any one else, as he pleases, and at night he

receives his quarter of a dollar. This is something like freedom, and he

begins to have the feelings of a freeman--a lighter heart and more

active limbs. He puts his money carefully away at night, and lays

himself down to rest his toil-worn body. He awakes on Sabbath morning,

and _is still free_. He puts on his best clothes, goes to church,

worships a free God, contemplates a free heaven, sees his free children

about him, and his wedded wife; and ere the night again returns, the

consciousness that he is a slave is quite lost in the thoughts of

liberty which fill his breast, and the associations of freedom which

cluster around him. He sleeps again. _Monday morning he is startled from

his dreams by the old "shell-blow" of slavery_, and he arises to endure

another week of toil, alternated by the same tantalizing mockeries of

freedom. Is not this applying the _hot iron to the nerve_?

5. But, lastly, the apprenticeship system, as if it would apply the

match to this magazine of combustibles, holds out the reward of liberty

to every apprentice who shall by any means provoke his master to punish

him a second time.

[NOTE.--In a former part of this work--the report of Antigua--we

mentioned having received information respecting a number of the

apprenticeship islands, viz., Dominica, St. Christopher's, Nevis,

Montserrat, Anguilla, and Tortola, from the Wesleyan Missionaries whom

we providentially met with at the annual district meeting in Antigua. We

designed to give the statements of these men at some length in this

connection, but we find that it would swell our report to too great a

size. It only remains to say, therefore, in a word, that the same things

are generally true of those colonies which have been detailed in the

account of Barbadoes. There is the same peaceableness, subordination,

industry, and patient suffering on the part of the apprentices, the same

inefficiency of the apprenticeship as a preparation for freedom, and the

same conviction in the community that the people will, if at all

affected by it, be _less_ fit for emancipation in 1840 than they were in

1834. A short call at St. Christopher's confirmed these views in our

minds, so far as that island is concerned.

While in Barbadoes, we had repeated interviews with gentlemen who were

well acquainted with the adjacent islands, St. Lucia, St. Vincent's,

Grenada, &c.; one of whom was a proprietor of a sugar estate in St.

Vincent's; and they assured us that there was the same tranquillity

reigning in those islands which we saw in Barbadoes. Sir Evan McGregor,

who is the governor-general of the windward colonies, and of course

thoroughly informed respecting their internal state, gave us the same

assurances. From Mr. H., an American gentleman, a merchant of Barbadoes,

and formerly of Trinidad, we gathered similar information touching that

large and (compared with Barbadoes or Antigua) semi-barbarous island.

We learned enough from these authentic sources to satisfy ourselves that

the various degrees of intelligence in the several islands makes very

little difference in the actual results of abolition; but that in all

the colonies, conciliatory and equitable management has never failed to

secure industry and tranquillity.]

JAMAICA.

CHAPTER I.

KINGSTON.

Having drawn out in detail the results of abolition, and the working of

the apprenticeship system in Barbadoes, we shall spare the reader a

protracted account of Jamaica; but the importance of that colony, and

the fact that greater dissatisfaction on account of the abolition of

slavery has prevailed there than in all the other colonies together,

demand a careful statement of facts.

On landing in Jamaica, we pushed onward in our appropriate inquiries,

scarcely stopping to cast a glance at the towering mountains, with their

cloud-wreathed tops, and the valleys where sunshine and shade sleep side

by side--at the frowning precipices, made more awful by the impenetrable

forest-foliage which shrouds the abysses below, leaving the impression

of an ocean depth--at the broad lawns and magnificent savannahs glowing

in verdure and sunlight--at the princely estates and palace mansions--at

the luxuriant cultivation, and the sublime solitude of primeval forests,

where trees of every name, the mahogany, the boxwood, the rosewood, the

cedar, the palm, the fern, the bamboo, the cocoa, the breadfruit, the

mango, the almond, all grow in wild confusion, interwoven with a dense

tangled undergrowth.[A]

[Footnote A: It is less necessary for us to dwell long on Jamaica, than

it would otherwise be, since the English gentlemen, Messrs. Sturge and

Harvey, spent most of their time in that island, and will, doubtless,

publish their investigations, which will, ere long, be accessible to our

readers. We had the pleasure of meeting these intelligent philanthropic

and pious men in the West Indies, and from the great length of time, and

the superior facilities which they enjoyed over us, of gathering a mass

of facts in Jamaica, we feel assured that their report will be highly

interesting and useful, as well among us as on the other side of

the water.]

We were one month in Jamaica. For about a week we remained in

Kingston,[B] and called on some of the principal gentlemen, both white

and colored. We visited the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General,

some of the editors, the Baptist and Wesleyan missionaries, and several

merchants. We likewise visited the public schools, the house of

correction, penitentiary, hospital, and other public institutions. We

shall speak briefly of several individuals whom we saw in Kingston, and

give some of their statements.

[Footnote B: The chief town of the island, with about forty thousand

inhabitants.]

The Hon. Dowel O'Reily; the Attorney-General; is an Irishman, and of one

of the influential families. In his own country he was a prominent

politician, and a bold advocate of Catholic Emancipation. He is

decidedly one of the ablest men in the island, distinguished for that

simplicity of manners, and flow of natural benevolence, which are the

characteristics of the Irishman. He received his present appointment

from the English government about six years ago, and is, by virtue of

his office, a member of the council. He declared that the apprenticeship

was in no manner preparing the negroes for freedom, but was operating in

a contrary way, especially in Jamaica, where it had been made the

instrument of greater cruelties in some cases, than slavery itself. Mr.

O'Reily is entirely free from prejudice; with all his family rank and

official standing, he identifies himself with the colored people as far

as his extensive professional engagements will allow. Having early

learned this, we were surprised to find him so highly respected by the

whites. In our subsequent excursions to the country, the letters of

introduction with which he kindly furnished us, to planters and others,

were uniformly received with avowals of the profoundest respect for him.

It should be observed, that Mr. O'Reily's attachment to the cause of

freedom in the colonies, is not a mere partizan feeling assumed in order

to be in keeping with the government under which he holds his office.

The fact of his being a Roman Catholic must, of itself, acquit him of

the suspicion of any strong partiality for the English government. On

the other hand, his decided hostility to the apprenticeship--the

favorite offspring of British legislation--demonstrates equally his

sincerity and independence.

We were introduced to the Solicitor-General, William Henry Anderson,

Esq., of Kingston. Mr. A. is a Scotchman, and has resided to Jamaica for

more than six years. We found him the fearless advocate of negro

emancipation. He exposed the corruptions and abominations of the

apprenticeship without reserve. Mr. A. furnished us with a written

statement of his views, respecting the state of the island, the

condition of the apprentices, &c., from which we here make a

few extracts.

"1. A very material change for the better has taken place in the

sentiments of the community since slavery was abolished. Religion and

education were formerly opposed as subversive of the security of

property; now they are in the most direct manner encouraged as its best

support. The value of all kinds of property has risen considerably, and

a general sense of security appears to be rapidly pervading the public

mind. I have not heard one man assert that it would be an advantage to

return to slavery, even were it practicable; and I believe that the

public is beginning to see that slave labor is not the cheapest."

"2. The prejudices against color are _rapidly vanishing_. I do not think

there is a respectable man, I mean one who would be regarded as

respectable on account of his good sense and weight of character, who

would impugn another's conduct for associating with persons of color. So

far as my observation goes, those who would formerly have acted on these

prejudices, will be ashamed to own that they had entertained them. The

distinction of superior acquirements still belongs to the whites, as a

body; but that, and character, will shortly be the only distinguishing

mark recognized among us."

"3. The apprentices are improving, _not, however, in consequence of the

apprenticeship, but in spite of it, and in consequence of the great act

of abolition_!"

"4. I think the negroes might have been emancipated as safely in 1834,

as in 1840; and had the emancipation then taken place, they would be

found much further in advance in 1840, than they can be after the

expiration of the present period of apprenticeship, _through which all,

both apprentices and masters, are_ LABORING HEAVILY."

"5. That the negroes will work if moderately compensated, no candid man

can doubt. Their _endurance_ for the sake of a very little gain is quite

amazing, and they are most desirous to procure for themselves and

families as large a share as possible of the comforts and decencies of

life. They appear peculiarly to reverence and desire intellectual

attainments. They employ, occasionally, children who have been taught in

the schools to teach them in their leisure time to read."

"6. I think the partial modifications of slavery have been attended by

so much improvement in all that constitutes the welfare and

respectability of society, that I cannot doubt the increase of the

benefit were a total abolition accomplished of every restriction that

has arisen out of the former state of things."

During our stay in Kingston, we called on the American consul, to whom

we had a letter from the consul at Antigua. We found him an elderly

gentleman, and a true hearted Virginian, both in his generosity and his

prejudices in favor of slavery. The consul, Colonel Harrison, is a near

relation of General W.H. Harrison, of Ohio. Things, he said, were going

ruinously in Jamaica. The English government were mad for abolishing

slavery. The negroes of Jamaica were the most degraded and ignorant of

all negroes he had ever seen. He had travelled in all our Southern

States, and the American negroes, even those of South Carolina and

Georgia, were as much superior to the negroes of Jamaica, as Henry Clay

was superior to him. He said they were the most ungrateful, faithless

set he ever saw; no confidence could be placed in them, and kindness was

always requited by insult. He proceeded to relate a fact from which it

appeared that the ground on which his grave charges against the negro

character rested, was the ill-conduct of one negro woman whom he had

hired some time ago to assist his family. The town negroes, he said,

were too lazy to work; they loitered and lounged about on the sidewalks

all day, jabbering with one another, and keeping up an incessant noise;

and they would not suffer a white man to order them in the least. They

were rearing their children in perfect idleness and for his part he

could not tell what would become of the rising population of blacks.

Their parents were too proud to let them work, and they sent them to

school all the time. Every afternoon, he said, the streets are thronged

with the half-naked little black devils, just broke from the schools,

and all singing some noisy tune learned in the infant schools; the

_burthen of_ their songs seems to be, "_O that will be joyful_." These

words, said he, are ringing in your ears wherever you go. How

aggravating truly such words must be, bursting cheerily from the lips of

the little free songsters! "O that will be joyful, _joyful_,

JOYFUL"--and so they ring the changes day after day, ceaseless and

untiring. A new song this, well befitting the times and the prospects,

but provoking enough to oppressors. The consul denounced he special

magistrates; they were an insolent set of fellows, they would fine a

white man as quick as they would flog a _nigger_.[A] If a master called

his apprentice "you scoundrel," or, "you huzzy," the magistrate would

either fine him for it or reprove him sharply in the presence of the

apprentice. This, in the eyes of the veteran Virginian, was intolerable.

Outrageous, not to allow a _gentleman_ to call his servant what names he

chooses! We were very much edified by the Colonel's _exposé_ of Jamaica

manners. We must say, however, that his opinions had much less weight

with us after we learned (as we did from the best authority) that he had

never been a half dozen miles into the country during a ten year's

residence in Kingston.

[Footnote A: We fear there is too little truth in this representation.]

We called on the Rev. Jonathan Edmonson, the superintendent of the

Wesleyan missions in Jamaica. Mr. E. has been for many years laboring as

a missionary in the West Indies, first in Barbadoes, then in St.

Vincent's, Grenada, Trinidad, and Demerara, and lastly in Jamaica. He

stated that the planters were doing comparatively nothing to prepare the

negroes for freedom. "_Their whole object was to get as much sugar out

of them as they possibly could_."

We received a call from the Rev. Mr. Wooldridge, one of the Independent

missionaries. He thinks the conduct of the planters is tending to make

the apprentices their bitter enemies. He mentioned one effect of the

apprenticeship which had not been pointed out to us before. The system

of appraisement, he said, was a _premium upon all the bad qualities of

the negroes and a tax upon all the good ones_. When a person is to be

appraised, his virtues and his vices are always inquired into, and they

materially influence the estimate of his value. For example, the usual

rate of appraisement is a dollar per week for the remainder of the term;

but if the apprentice is particularly sober, honest, and industrious,

more particularly if he be a _pious man_, he is valued at the rate of

two or three dollars per week. It was consequently for the interest of

the master, when an apprentice applied for an appraisement, to portray

his virtues, while on the other hand there was an inducement for the

apprentice to conceal or actually to renounce his good qualities, and

foster the worst vices. Some instances of this kind had fallen under his

personal observation.

We called on the Rev. Mr. Gardiner, and on the Rev. Mr. Tinson, two

Baptist missionaries in Kingston. On Sabbath we attended service at the

church of which Mr. G. is the pastor. It is a very large building,

capable of seating two thousand persons. The great mass of the

congregation were apprentices. At the time we were present, the chapel

was well filled, and the broad surface of black faces was scarcely at

all diversified with lighter colors. It was gratifying to witness the

neatness of dress, the sobriety of demeanor, the devotional aspect of

countenance, the quiet and wakeful attention to the preacher which

prevailed. They were mostly rural negroes from the estates adjacent

to Kingston.

The Baptists are the most numerous body of Christians in the island. The

number of their missionaries now in Jamaica is sixteen, the number of

Chapels is thirty-one, and the number of members thirty-two thousand

nine hundred and sixty. The increase of members during the year 1836 was

three thousand three hundred and forty-four.

At present the missionary field is mostly engrossed by the Baptists and

Wesleyans. The Moravians are the next most numerous body. Besides these,

there are the clergy of the English Church, with a Bishop, and a few

Scotch clergymen. The Baptist missionaries, as a body, have been most

distinguished for their opposition to slavery. Their boldness in the

midst of suffering and persecutions, their denunciations of oppression,

though they did for a time arouse the wrath of oppressors, and cause

their chapels to be torn down and themselves to be hunted, imprisoned,

and banished, did more probably than any other cause, to hasten the

abolition of slavery.

_Schools in Kingston_.--We visited the Wolmer free school--the largest

and oldest school in the island. The whole number of scholars is five

hundred. It is under the charge of Mr. Reid, a venerable Scotchman, of

scholarship and piety. All colors are mingled in it promiscuously. We

saw the infant school department examined by Mr. R. There were nearly

one hundred and fifty children, of every hue, from the jettiest black to

the fairest white; they were thoroughly intermingled, and the ready

answers ran along the ranks from black to white, from white to brown,

from brown to pale, with undistinguished vivacity and accuracy. We were

afterwards conducted into the higher department, where lads and misses

from nine to fifteen, were instructed in the various branches of

academic education. A class of lads, mostly colored, were examined in

arithmetic. They wrought several sums in pounds, shillings and pence

currency, with wonderful celerity.

Among other things which we witnessed in that school, we shall not soon

forget having seen a curly headed negro lad of twelve, examining a class

of white young ladies in scientific history.

Some written statements and statistical tables were furnished us by Mr.

Reid, which we subjoin..

_Kingston, May 13th, 1837_

DEAR SIR,--I delayed answering your queries in hopes of being able to

give you an accurate list of the number of schools in Kingston, and

pupils under tuition, but have not been able completely to accomplish my

intention. I shall now answer your queries in the order you propose

them. 1st Quest. How long have you been teaching in Jamaica? Ans.

Thirty-eight years in Kingston. 2d Q. How long have you been master of

Wolmer's free school? A. Twenty-three years. 3d Q. What is the number of

colored children now in the school? A. Four hundred and thirty. 4th Q.

Was there any opposition to their admission at first? A. Considerable

opposition the first year, but none afterwards. 5th Q. Do they learn as

readily us the white children? A. As they are more regular in their

attendance, they learn better. 6th Q. Are they as easily governed? A.

Much easier. 7th Q. What proportion of the school are the children of

apprentices? A. Fifty. 8th Q. Do their parents manifest a desire to have

them educated? A. In general they do. 9th Q. At what age do the children

leave your school? A. Generally between twelve and fourteen. 10th Q What

employments do they chiefly engage in upon leaving you? A. The boys go

to various mechanic trades, to counting-houses, attorney's offices,

clerks to planting attorneys, and others become planters. The, girls

seamstresses, mantuamakers, and a considerable proportion tailoresses,

in Kingston and throughout Jamaica, as situations offer.

I am, dear sirs, yours respectfully,

E. REID.

The following table will show the average numbers of the respective

classes, white and colored, who have attended Wolmer's free school in

each year, from 1814 to the present time.

White | Colored | Total.

Children.|Children.|

Average number in 1814 87 87

" " 1815 111 3 114

" " 1816 129 25 154

" " 1817 146 36 182

" " 1818 155 38 193

" " 1819 136 57 193

" " 1820 116 78 194

" " 1821 118 122 240

" " 1822 93 167 260

" " 1823 97 187 280

" " 1824 94 196 290

" " 1825 89 185 274

" " 1826 93 176 269

" " 1827 92 156 248

" " 1828 88 152 240

" " 1829 79 192 271

" " 1830 88 194 282

" " 1831 88 315 403

" " 1832 90 360 450

" " 1833 93 411 504

" " 1834 81 420 501

" " 1835 85 425 510

" " 1836 78 428 506

" " 1837 72 430 502

With regard to the _comparative intellect_ of white and colored

children, Mr. Reid gives the following valuable statement:

"For the last thirty-eight years I have been employed in this city in

the tuition of children of all classes and colors, and have no

hesitation in saying that the children of color are equal both in

conduct and ability to the white. They have always carried off more than

their proportion of prizes, and at one examination, out of seventy

prizes awarded, sixty-four were obtained by children of color."

Mr. R. afterwards sent to us the table of the number of schools in

Kingston, alluded to in the foregoing communication. We insert it here,

as it affords a view of the increase of schools and scholars since the

abolition of slavery.

1831.

Schools. Scholars.

2 Wolmer's, 403

1 National, 270

34 Gentlemen's private, 1368

40 Ladies' do. 1005

8 Sunday, 1042

---- ----

85 Total, 4088

1832.

Schools. Scholars.

2 Wolmer's, 472

1 National, 260

31 Gentlemen's private, 1169

41 Ladies' do. 856

8 Sunday, 981

---- ----

83 Total, 3738

1836.

Schools. Scholars.

2 Wolmer's, 527

3 National, 1136

3 Mico, 590

1 Baptist, 250

1 Jamaica Union, 120

31 Gentlemen's private, 1137

59 Ladies' do. 1339

9 Sunday, 1108

By itinerant teachers and children. 1500

---- ----

109 Total, 7707

1837.

Schools. Scholars.

2 Wolmer's, 502

3 National, 1238

4 Mico, 611

1 Baptist 260

1 Jamaica Union, 200

34 Gentlemen's private, 1476

63 Ladies' do. 1525

10 Sunday, 1316

By itinerant teachers and children, 1625

---- ----

118 Total, 8753

We also visited the Union school, which has been established for some

years in Kingston. All the children connected with it, about one hundred

and fifty, are, with two exceptions, black or colored. The school is

conducted generally on the Lancasterian plan. We examined several of the

boys in arithmetic. We put a variety of questions to them, to be worked

out on the slate, and the reasons of the process to be explained as they

went along; all which they executed with great expertness. There was a

jet black boy, whom we selected for a special trial. We commenced with

the simple rules, and went through them one by one, together with the

compound rules and Reduction, to Practice, propounding questions and

examples in each of them, which were entirely new to him, and to all of

them he gave prompt and correct replies. He was only thirteen years old,

and we can aver we never saw a boy of that age in any of our common

schools, that exhibited a fuller and clearer knowledge of the science

of numbers.

In general, our opinion of this school was similar to that already

expressed concerning the others. It is supported by the pupils, aided by

six hundred dollars granted by the assembly.

In connection with this subject, there is one fact of much interest.

However strong and exclusive was the prejudice of color a few years

since in the schools of Jamaica, we could not, during our stay in that

island, learn of more than two or three places of education, and those

private ones, from which colored children were excluded, and among the

numerous schools in Kingston, there is not one of this kind.

We called on several colored gentlemen of Kingston, from whom we

received much valuable information. The colored population are opposed

to the apprenticeship, and all the influence which they have, both in

the colony and with the home government, (which is not small,) is

exerted against it. They are a festering thorn in the sides of the

planters, among whom they maintain a fearless espionage, exposing by pen

and tongue their iniquitous proceedings. It is to be regretted that

their influence in this respect is so sadly weakened by their _holding

apprentices themselves_.

We had repeated invitations to breakfast and dine with colored

gentlemen, which we accepted as often as our engagements would permit.

On such occasions we generally met a company of gentlemen and ladies of

superior social and intellectual accomplishments. We must say, that it

is a great self-denial to refrain from a description of some of the

animated, and we must add splendid, parties of colored people which we

attended. The conversation on these occasions mostly turned on the

political and civil disabilities under which the colored population

formerly labored, and the various straggles by which they ultimately

obtained their rights. The following are a few items of their history.

The colored people of Jamaica, though very numerous, and to some extent

wealthy and intelligent, were long kept by the white colonists in a

state of abject political bondage. Not only were offices withheld from

them, and the right of suffrage denied, but they were not even allowed

the privilege of an oath in court, in defense of their property or their

persons. They might be violently assaulted, their limbs broken, their

wives and daughters might be outraged before their eyes by villains

having white skins; yet they had no legal redress unless another white

man chanced to see the deed. It was not until 1824 that this oppressive

enactment was repealed, and the protection of an oath extended to the

colored people; nor was it then effected without a long struggle on

their part.

Another law, equally worthy of a slaveholding legislature, prohibited

any white man, however wealthy, bequeathing, or in any manner giving his

colored son or daughter more than £2000 currency, or six thousand

dollars. The design of this law was to keep the colored people poor and

dependent upon the whites. Further to secure the same object, every

effort, both legislative and private, was made to debar them from

schools, and sink them in the lowest ignorance. Their young men of

talent were glad to get situations as clerks in the stores of white

merchants. Their young ladies of beauty and accomplishments were

fortune-made if they got a place in the white man's harem. These were

the highest stations to which the flower of their youth aspired. The

rest sank beneath the discouragements, and grovelled in vice and

debasement. If a colored person had any business with a white gentleman,

and should call at his house, "he must take off his hat, and wait at the

door, and be _as polite as a dog_."

These insults and oppressions the colored people in Jamaica bore, until

they could bear them no longer. By secret correspondence they formed a

union throughout the island, for the purpose of resistance. This,

however, was not effected for a long time, and while in process, the

correspondence was detected, and the most vigorous means were used by

the whites to crush the growing conspiracy--for such it was virtually.

Persuasions and intimations were used privately, and when these failed,

public persecutions were resorted to, under the form of judicial

procedures. Among the milder means was the dismission of clerks, agents,

&c., from the employ of a white men. As soon as a merchant discovered

that his clerk was implicated in the correspondence, he first threatened

to discharge him unless he would promise to desert his brethren: if he

could not extort this promise, he immediately put his threat in

execution. Edward Jordon, Esq., the talented editor of the Watchman,

then first clerk in the store of a Mr. Briden, was prominently concerned

in the correspondence, and was summarily dismissed.

White men drove their colored sons from their houses, and subjected them

to every indignity and suffering, in order to deter them from

prosecuting an enterprise which was seen by the terrified oppressors to

be fraught with danger to themselves. Then followed more violent

measures. Persons suspected of being the projectors of the disaffection,

were dragged before incensed judges, and after mock trials, were

sentenced to imprisonment in the city jail. Messrs. Jordon and Osborne,

(after they had established the Watchman paper,) were both imprisoned;

the former twice, for five months each time. At the close of the second

term of imprisonment, Mr. Jordon was _tried for his life_, on the charge

of having published _seditious matter_ in the Watchman.

The paragraph which was denominated '_seditious matter_' was this--

"Now that the member for Westmoreland (Mr. Beaumont) has come over to

our side, we will, by a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether,

bring down the system by the run, knock off the fetters, and let the

oppressed go free."

On the day of Mr. J.'s trial, the court-room was thronged with colored

men, who had armed themselves, and were determined, if the sentence of

death were pronounced upon Mr. Jordon, to rescue him at whatever hazard.

It is supposed that their purpose was conjectured by the judges--at any

rate, they saw fit to acquit Mr. J. and give him his enlargement. The

Watchman continued as fearless and _seditious_ as ever, until the

Assembly were ultimately provoked to threaten some extreme measure which

should effectually silence the agitators. _Then_ Mr. Jordon issued a

spirited circular, in which he stated the extent of the coalition among

the colored people, and in a tone of defiance demanded the instant

repeal of every restrictive law, the removal of every disability, and

the extension of complete political equality; declaring, that if the

demand were not complied with, the whole colored population would rise

in arms, would proclaim freedom to their own slaves, instigate the

slaves generally to rebellion, and then shout war and wage it, until

_the streets of Kingston should run blood_. This bold piece of

generalship succeeded. The terrified legislators huddled together in

their Assembly-room, and swept away, at one blow, all restrictions, and

gave the colored people entire enfranchisement. These occurrences took

place in 1831; since which time the colored class have been politically

free, and have been marching forward with rapid step in every species of

improvement, and are now on a higher footing than in any other colony.

All offices are open to them; they are aldermen of the city, justices of

the peace, inspectors of public institutions, trustees of schools, etc.

There are, at least, then colored special magistrates, natives of the

island. There are four colored members of the Assembly, including

Messrs. Jordon and Osborne. Mr. Jordon now sits in the same Assembly,

side by side, with the man who, a few years ago, ejected him

disdainfully from his clerkship. He is a member of the Assembly for the

city of Kingston, where not long since he was imprisoned, and tried for

his life. He is also alderman of the city, and one of its local

magistrates. He is now inspector of the same prison in which he was

formerly immured as a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition.

The secretary of the special magistrate department, Richard Hill, Esq.,

is a colored gentleman, and is one of the first men in the island,[A]

for integrity, independence, superior abilities, and extensive

acquirements. It has seldom been our happiness to meet with a man more

illustrious for true nobility of soul, or in whose countenance there

were deeper traces of intellectual and moral greatness. We are confident

that no man can _see_ him without being impressed with his rare

combination of excellences.

[Footnote A: We learn from the Jamaica papers, since our return to this

country, that Mr. Hill has been elected a member of the Assembly.]

Having said thus much respecting the political advancement of the

colored people, it is proper to remark, that they have by no means

evinced a determination to claim more than their share of office and

influence. On the contrary, they stop very far short of what they are

entitled to. Having an extent of suffrage but little less than the

whites, they might fill one third of the seats in the Assembly, whereas

they now return but four members out of forty-five. The same may be said

of other offices, particularly those in the city of Kingston, and the

larger towns, where they are equal to, or more numerous, than the

whites. It is a fact, that a portion of the colored people continue at

this time to return white members to the Assembly, and to vote for white

aldermen and other city officers. The influential men among them, have

always urged them to take up white men, unless they could find

_competent_ men of their own color. As they remarked to us, if they were

obliged to send an _ass_ to the Assembly, it was far better for _them_

to send a _white_ ass than a _black_ one.

In company with a friend, we visited the principal streets and places of

business in Kingston, for the purpose of seeing for ourselves the

general employments of the people of color; and those who engage in the

lowest offices, such as porters, watermen, draymen, and servants of all

grades, from him who flaunts in livery, to him who polishes shoes, are

of course from this class. So with the fruiterers, fishmongers, and the

almost innumerable tribe of petty hucksters which swarm throughout the

city, and is collected in a dense mass in its suburbs. The market, which

is the largest and best in the West Indies, is almost entirely supplied

and attended by colored persons, mostly females. The great body of

artisans is composed mostly of colored persons.

There are two large furniture and cabinet manufactories in Kingston, one

owned by two colored men, and the other by a white man. The operatives,

of which one contains eighty, and the other nearly as many, are all

black and colored. A large number of them are what the British law terms

_apprentices_, and are still bound in unremunerated servitude, though

some of them for thrice seven years have been adepts in their trades,

and not a few are earning their masters twenty or thirty dollars each

month, clear of all expenses. Some of these _apprentices_ are

hoary-headed and wrinkle-browned men, with their children, and

grand-children, apprentices also, around them, and who, after having

used the plane and the chisel for half a century, with faithfulness for

_others_, are now spending the few hours and the failing strength of old

again in _preparing_ to use the plane and the chisel for _themselves_.

The work on which they were engaged evinced no lack of mechanical skill

and ingenuity, but on the contrary we were shown some of the most

elegant specimens of mechanical skill, which we ever saw. The rich woods

of the West Indies were put into almost every form and combination which

taste could designate or luxury desire.

The owners of these establishments informed us that their business had

much _increased within the last two years_, and was still extending.

Neither of them had any fears for the results of complete emancipation,

but both were laying their plans for the future as broadly and

confidently as ever.

In our walk we accidentally met a colored man, whom we had heard

mentioned on several occasions as a superior architect. From the

conversation we had with him, then and subsequently, he appeared to

possess a fine mechanical genius, and to have made acquirements which

would be honorable in any man, but which were truly admirable in one who

had been shut up all his life by the disabilities which in Jamaica have,

until recently, attached to color. He superintended the erection of the

Wesleyan chapel in Kingston, the largest building of the kind in the

island, and esteemed by many as the most elegant. The plan was his own,

and the work was executed under his own eye. This man is using his means

and influence to encourage the study of his favorite art, and of the

arts and sciences generally, among those of his own hue.

One of the largest bookstores in the island is owned by two colored men.

(Messrs. Jordon and Osborne, already referred to.) Connected with it is

an extensive printing-office, from which a newspaper is issued twice a

week. Another paper, under the control of colored men, is published at

Spanishtown. These are the two principal liberal presses in Jamaica, and

are conducted with spirit and ability. Their influence in the political

and civil affairs of the island is very great. They are the organs of

the colored people, bond and free, and through them any violation of law

or humanity is exposed to the public, and redress demanded, and

generally obtained. In literary merit and correctness of moral

sentiment, they are not excelled by any press there, while some of their

white contemporaries fall far below them in both. Besides the workmen

employed in these two offices, there is a large number of colored

printers in the other printing offices, of which there are several.

We called at two large establishment for making jellies, comfits,

pickles, and all the varieties of tropic _preserves_. In each of them

thirty or more persons are constantly employed, and a capital of some

thousands of dollars invested. Several large rooms were occupied by

boxes, jars, and canisters, with the apparatus necessary to the process,

through which the fruit passes. We saw every species of fruits and

vegetables which the island produces, some fresh from the trees and

vines, and others ready to be transported to the four quarters of the

globe, in almost every state which the invalid or epicure could desire.

These articles, with the different preparations of arrow-root and

cassada, form a lucrative branch of trade, which is mostly in the hands

of the colored people.

We were introduced to a large number of colored merchants, dealers in

dry goods, crockery and glass ware, ironmongers, booksellers, druggists,

grocers, and general importers and were conducted by them through their

stores; many of which were on an extensive scale, and managed,

apparently, with much order and regularity. One of the largest

commercial houses in Kingston has a colored man as a partner, the other

two being white. Of a large auction and commission firm, the most active

and leading partner is a colored man. Besides these, there is hardly a

respectable house among the white merchants, in which some important

office, oftentimes the head clerkship, is not filled by a person of

color. They are as much respected in business transactions, and their

mercantile talents, their acquaintance with the generalities and details

of commerce, and sagacity and judgment in making bargains, are as highly

esteemed by the white merchants, as though they wore an European hue.

The commercial room is open to them, where they resort unrestrainedly to

ascertain the news; and a visitor may not unfrequently see sitting

together at a table of newspapers, or conversing together in the

parlance of trade, persons as dissimilar in complexion as white and

black can make them. In the streets the same intercourse is seen.

The general trade of the island is gradually and quietly passing into

the hands of the colored people. Before emancipation, they seldom

reached a higher grade in mercantile life than a clerkship, or, if they

commenced business for themselves, they were shackled and confined in

their operations by the overgrown and monopolizing establishments which

slavery had built up. Though the civil and political rights of one class

of them were acknowledged three years previous, yet they found they

could not, even if they desired it, disconnect themselves from the

slaves. They could not transact business--form credits and agencies, and

receive the confidence of the commercial public--like free men. Strange

or not, their fate was inseparably linked with that of the bondman,

their interests were considered as involved with his. However honest

they might be, it was not safe to trust them; and any attempt to rise

above a clerkship, to become the employer instead of the employed, was

regarded as a kind of insurrection, and strongly disapproved and

opposed. Since emancipation, they have been unshackling them selves from

white domination in matters of trade; extending their connections, and

becoming every day more and more independent. They have formed credits

with commercial houses abroad, and now import directly for themselves,

at wholesale prices, what they were formerly obliged to receive from

white importers, or rather speculators, at such prices as they, in their

tender mercies, saw fit to impose.

Trade is now equalizing itself among all classes. A spirit of

competition is awakened, banks have been established, steam navigation

introduced, railroads projected, old highways repaired, and new ones

opened. The descendants of the slaves are rapidly supplying the places

which were formerly filled by whites from abroad.

We had the pleasure of being present one day at the sitting of the

police court of Kingston. Mr. Jordon, the editor of the Watchman, in his

turn as a member of the common council, was presiding justice, with an

alderman of the city, a black man, as his associate. At a table below

them sat the superintendent of police, a white man, and two white

attorneys, with their huge law books and green bags before them. The bar

was surrounded by a motley assemblage of black, colored, and white

faces, intermingled without any regard to hue in the order of

superiority and precedence. There were about a dozen cases adjudged

while we were present. The court was conducted with order and dignity,

and the justices were treated with great respect and deference both by

white and black.

After the adjournment of the court, we had some conversation with the

presiding justice. He informed us that whites were not unfrequently

brought before him for trial, and, in spite of his color, sometimes even

our own countrymen. He mentioned several instances of the latter, in

some of which American prejudice assumed very amusing and ludicrous

forms. In one case, he was obliged to threaten the party, a captain from

one of our southern ports, with imprisonment for contempt, before he

could induce him to behave himself with proper decorum. The captain,

unaccustomed to obey injunctions from men of such a complexion, curled

his lip in scorn, and showed a spirit of defiance, but on the approach

of two police officers, whom the court had ordered to arrest him, he

submitted himself. We were gratified with the spirit of good humor and

pleasantry with which Mr. J. described the astonishment and gaping

curiosity which Americans manifest on seeing colored men in offices of

authority, particularly on the judicial bench, and their evident

embarrassment and uneasiness whenever obliged to transact business with

them as magistrates. He seemed to regard it as a subject well worthy of

ridicule; and we remarked, in our intercourse with the colored people,

that they were generally more disposed to make themselves merry with

American sensitiveness on this point, than to bring serious complaints

against it, though they feel deeply the wrongs which they have suffered

from it, and speak of them occasionally with solemnity and earnestness.

Still the feeling is so absurd and ludicrous in itself, and is exhibited

in so many grotesque positions, even when oppressive, that the sufferer

cannot help laughing at it. Mr. Jordon has held his present office since

1832. He has had an extensive opportunity, both as a justice of the

police court, and as a member of the jail committee, and in other

official stations, to become well acquainted with the state of crime in

the island at different periods. He informed us that the number of

complaints brought before him had much diminished since 1834, and he had

no hesitation in saying, that crime had decreased throughout the island

generally more than one third.

During one of our excursions into the country, we witnessed another

instance of the amicability with which the different colors associated

in the civil affairs of the island. It was a meeting of one of the

parish vestries, a kind of local legislature, which possesses

considerable power over its own territory. There were fifteen members

present, and nearly as many different shades of complexion. There was

the planter of aristocratic blood, and at his side was a deep mulatto,

born in the same parish a slave. There was the quadroon, and the

unmitigated hue and unmodified features of the negro. They sat together

around a circular table, and conversed as freely as though they had been

all of one color. There was no restraint, no uneasiness, as though the

parties felt themselves out of place, no assumption nor disrespect, but

all the proceedings manifested the most perfect harmony, confidence, and

good feeling.

At the same time there was a meeting of the parish committee on roads,

at which there was the same intermixture of colors, the same freedom and

kindness of demeanor, and the same unanimity of action. Thus it is with

all the political and civil bodies in the island, from the House of

Assembly, to committees on jails and houses of correction. Into all of

them, the colored people are gradually making their way, and

participating in public debates and public measures, and dividing with

the whites legislative and judicial power, and in many cases they

exhibit a superiority, and in all cases a respectability, of talents and

attainments, and a courtesy and general propriety of conduct, which gain

for them the respect of the intelligent and candid among their white

associates.

We visited the house of correction for the parish of St. Andrews. The

superintendent received us with the iron-hearted courtesy of a Newgate

turnkey. Our company was evidently unwelcome, but as the friend who

accompanied us was a man in authority, he was constrained to admit us.

The first sound that greeted us was a piercing outcry from the

treadmill. On going to it, we saw a youth of about eighteen hanging in

the air by a strap bound to his wrist, and dangling against the wheel in

such a manner that every revolution of it scraped the body from the

breast to the ankles. He had fallen off from weakness and fatigue, and

was struggling and crying in the greatest distress, while the strap,

which extended to a pole above and stretched his arm high above his

head, held him fast. The superintendent, in a harsh voice, ordered him

to be lifted up, and his feet again placed on the wheel. But before he

had taken five steps, he again fell off, and was suspended as before. At

the same instant, a woman also fell off, and without a sigh or the

motion of a muscle, for she was too much exhausted for either, but with

a shocking wildness of the eye, hung by her half-dislocated arms against

the wheel. As the allotted time (fifteen minutes) had expired, the

persons on the wheel were released, and permitted to rest. The boy could

hardly stand on the ground. He had a large ulcer on one of his feet,

which was much swollen and inflamed, and his legs and body were greatly

bruised and peeled by the revolving of the wheel. The gentleman who was

with us reproved the superintendent severely for his conduct, and told

him to remove the boy from the treadmill gang, and see that proper care

was taken of him. The poor woman who fell off, seemed completely

exhausted; she tottered to the wall near by, and took up a little babe

which we had not observed before. It appeared to be not more than two or

three months old, and the little thing stretched out its arms and

welcomed its mother. On inquiry, we ascertained that this woman's

offence was absence from the field an hour after the required time (six

o'clock) in the morning. Besides the infant with her, she had two or

three other children. Whether the care of them was any excuse for her,

we leave American mothers to judge. There were two other women on the

treadmill--one was sentenced there for stealing cane from her master's

field, and the other, we believe, for running away.

The superintendent next took us to the solitary cells. They were dirty,

and badly ventilated, and unfit to keep beasts in. On opening the doors,

such a stench rushed forth, that we could not remain. There was a poor

woman in one of them, who appeared, as the light of day and the fresh

air burst in upon her, like a despairing maniac.

We went through the other buildings, all of which were old and dirty,

nay, worse, _filthy_ in the extreme. The whole establishment was a

disgrace to the island. The prisoners were poorly clad, and had the

appearance of harsh usage. Our suspicions of ill treatment were

strengthened by noticing a large whip in the treadmill, and sundry iron

collars and handcuffs hanging about in the several rooms through which

we passed.

The number of inmates in this house at our visit, was

forty-eight--eighteen of whom were females. Twenty of these were in the

treadmill and in solitary confinement--the remainder were working on

the public road at a little distance--many of them _in irons_--iron

collars about their necks, and chains passing between, connecting them

together two and two.

CHAPTER II.

TOUR TO THE COUNTRY.

Wishing to accomplish the most that our limited time would allow; we

separated at Kingston;--the one taking a northwesterly route among the

mountainous coffee districts of Port Royal and St. Andrews, and the

other going into the parish of St. Thomas in the East.

St. Thomas in the East is said to present the apprenticeship in its most

favorable aspects. There is probably no other parish in the island which

includes so many fine estates, or has so many liberal-minded

planters.[A] A day's easy drive from Kingston, brought us to Morant Bay,

where we spent two days, and called on several influential gentlemen,

besides visiting the neighboring estate of Belvidere. One gentleman whom

we met was Thomas Thomson, Esq., the senior local magistrate of the

Parish, next in civil influence to the Custos. His standing may be

inferred from the circumstance, (not trifling in Jamaica,) that the

Governor, during his tour of the island, spent a night at his house. We

breakfasted with Mr. Thomson, and at that time, and subsequently, he

showed the utmost readiness in furnishing us with information. He is a

Scotchman, has been in the island for thirty-eight years, and has served

as a local magistrate for thirty-four. Until very lately, he has been a

proprietor of estates; he informed us that he had sold out, but did not

mention the reasons. We strongly suspected, from the drift of his

conversation, that he sold about the time of abolition, through alarm

for the consequences. We early discovered that he was one of the old

school tyrants, hostile to the change which _had_ taken place, and

dreadfully alarmed in view of that which was yet to come. Although full

of the prejudices of an old slaveholder, yet we found him a man of

strong native sense and considerable intelligence. He declared it most

unreservedly as his opinion, that the negroes would not work after

1810--they were _naturally so indolent_, that they would prefer

gaining a livelihood in some easier way than by digging cane holes. He

had all the results of the emancipation of 1840 as clearly before his

mind, as though he saw them in prophetic vision; he knew the whole

process. One portion of the negroes, too lazy to provide food by their

own labor, will rob the provision grounds of the few who will remain at

work. The latter will endure the wrong as long as they well can, and

then they will procure arms and fire upon the marauders; this will give

rise to incessant petty conflicts between the lazy and the industrious,

and a great destruction of life will ensue. Others will die in vast

numbers from starvation; among these will be the superannuated and the

young, who cannot support themselves, and whom the planters will not be

able to support. Others numerous will perish from disease, chiefly for

want of medical attendance, which it will be wholly out of their power

to provide. Such is the dismal picture drawn by a late slaveholder, of

the consequences of removing the negroes from the tender mercies of

oppressors. Happily for all parties, Mr. Thomson is not very likely to

establish his claim to the character of a prophet. We were not at all

surprised to hear him wind up his prophecies against freedom with a

_denunciation of slavery_. He declared that slavery was a wretched

system. Man was _naturally a tyrant_. Mr. T. said he had one good

thing to say of the negroes, viz., that they were an _exceedingly

temperate people_. It was a very unusual thing to see one of them drunk.

Slavery, he said, was a system of _horrid cruelties_. He had lately

read, in the history of Jamaica, of a planter, in 1763, having a slave's

_leg_ cut off, to keep him from running away. He said that dreadful

cruelties were perpetrated until the close of slavery, and they were

inseparable from slavery. He also spoke of the fears which haunted the

slaveholders. He never would live on an estate; and whenever he chanced

to stay over night in the country, he always took care to secure his

door by bolting and barricading it. At Mr. Thomson's we met Andrew

Wright, Esq., the proprietor of a sugar estate called Green Wall,

situated some six miles from the bay. He is an intelligent gentleman, of

an amiable disposition--has on his estate one hundred and sixty

apprentices. He described his people as being in a very peaceable state,

and as industrious as he could wish. He said he had no trouble with

them, and it was his opinion, that where there is trouble, it must be

_owing to bad management_. He anticipated no difficulty after 1840, and

was confident that his people would not leave him. He believed that the

negroes would not to any great extent abandon the cultivation of sugar

after 1840. Mr. T. stated two facts respecting this enlightened planter,

which amply account for the good conduct of his apprentices. One was,

that he was an exceedingly kind and amiable man. _He had never been

known to have a falling out with any man in his life_. Another fact was,

that Mr. Wright was the only resident sugar proprietor in all that

region of country. He superintends his own estate, while the other large

estates are generally left in the hands of unprincipled, mercenary men.

[Footnote A: We have the following testimony of Sir Lionel Smith to the

superiority of St. Thomas in the East. It is taken from the Royal

Gazette, (Kingston.) May 6, 1837. "His Excellency has said, that in all

his tour he was not more highly gratified with any parish than he was

with St. Thomas in the East."]

We called on the Wesleyan missionary at Morant Bay, Rev. Mr. Crookes,

who has been in Jamaica fifteen years. Mr. C. said, that in many

respects there had been a great improvement since the abolition of

slavery, but, said he, "I abominate the apprenticeship system. At best,

it is only _improved slavery_." The obstacles to religious efforts

have been considerably diminished, but the masters were not to be

thanked for this; it was owing chiefly to the protection of British law.

The apprenticeship, Mr. C. thought, could not be any material

preparation for freedom. He was persuaded that it would have been far

better policy to have granted entire emancipation at once.

In company with Mr. Howell, an Independent, and teacher of a school of

eighty negro children in Morant Bay, we drove out to Belvidere estate,

which is situated about four miles from the bay, in a rich district

called the Blue Mountain Valley. The Belvidere is one of the finest

estates in the valley. It contains two thousand acres, only four hundred

of which are cultivated in sugar; the most of it is woodland. This

estate belongs to Count Freeman, an absentee proprietor. We took

breakfast with the overseer, or manager, Mr. Briant. Mr. B. stated that

there was not so much work done now as there was during slavery. Thinks

there is _as much done for the length of time that the apprentices are

at work_; but a day and a half every week is lost; neither _are they

called out as early in the morning, nor do they work as late at night_.

The apprentices work at night very cheerfully for money: but they will

not work on Saturday for the common wages--quarter of a dollar. On

inquiry of Mr. B. we ascertained that the reason the apprentices did not

work on Saturdays was, that they could _make twice or three times as

much_ by cultivating their provision grounds, and carrying their produce

to market. At _night_ they cannot cultivate their grounds, then they

work for their masters "very cheerfully."

The manager stated, that there had been no disturbance with the people

of Belvidere since the change. They work well, and conduct themselves

peaceably; and he had no fear but that the great body of the negroes

would remain on the estate after 1840, and labor as usual. This he

thought would be the case on every estate where there _is mild

management_. Some, indeed, might leave even such estates to _try their

fortunes_ elsewhere, but they would soon discover that they could get no

better treatment abroad, and they would then return to their old homes.

While we were at Belvidere, Mr. Howell took us to see a new chapel which

the apprentices of that estate have erected since 1834, by their own

labor, and at their own expense. The house is thirty feet by forty;

composed of the same materials of which the negro huts are built. We

were told that the building of this chapel was first suggested by the

apprentices, and as soon as permission was obtained, they commenced the

preparations for its erection. We record this as a delightful _sign of

the times_.

On our return to Morant Bay, we visited the house of correction,

situated near the village. This is the only "institution," as a Kingston

paper gravely terms it, of the kind in the parish. It is a small,

ill-constructed establishment, horribly filthy, more like a receptacle

for wild beasts than human beings. There is a treadmill connected with

it, made to _accommodate_ fifteen persons at a time. Alternate companies

ascend the wheel every fifteen minutes. It was unoccupied when we went

in; most of the prisoners being at work on the public roads. Two or

three, who happened to be near by, were called in by the keeper, and

ordered to mount the wheel, to show us how it worked. It made our blood

run cold as we thought of the dreadful suffering that inevitably ensues,

when the foot loses the step, and the body hangs against the

revolving cylinder.

Leaving the house of correction, we proceeded to the village. In a small

open square in the centre of it, we saw a number of the unhappy inmates

of the house of correction at work under the direction, we are sorry to

say, of our friend Thomas Thomson, Esq. They were chained two and two by

heavy chains fastened to iron bands around their necks. On another

occasion, we saw the same gang at work in the yard attached to the

Independent chapel.

We received a visit, at our lodgings, from the special justice of this

district, Major Baines. He was accompanied by Mr. Thomson, who came to

introduce him as his friend. We were not left to this recommendation

alone, suspicious as it was, to infer the character of this magistrate,

for we were advertised previously that he was a "planter's man"--unjust

and cruel to the apprentices. Major B. appeared to have been looking

through his friend Thomson's prophetic telescope. There was certainly a

wonderful coincidence of vision--the same abandonment of labor, the same

preying upon provision grounds; the same violence, bloodshed and great

loss of life among the negroes themselves! However, the special

magistrate appeared to see a little further than the local magistrate,

even to the _end_ of the carnage, and to the re-establishment of

industry, peace and prosperity. The evil, he was confident, would soon

cure itself.

One remark of the special magistrate was worthy a prophet. When asked if

he thought there would be any serious disaffection produced among the

praedials by the emancipation of the non-praedials in 1838, he said, he

thought there would not be, and assigned as the reason, that the

praedials knew all about the arrangement, and did not _expect to be

free_. That is, the field apprentices knew that the domestics were to be

liberated two years sooner than they, and, without inquiring into the

grounds, or justice of the arrangement, _they would promptly

acquiesce in it_!

What a fine compliment to the patience and forbearance of the mass of

the negroes. The majority see the minority emancipated two years before

them, and that, too, upon the ground of an odious distinction which

makes the domestic more worthy than they who "bear the heat and burthen

of the day," in the open field; and yet they submit patiently, because

they are told that it is the pleasure of government that it should

be so!

The _non-praedials_, too, have their noble traits, as well as the less

favored agriculturalists. The special magistrate said that he was then

engaged in classifying the apprentices of the different estates in his

district. The object of this classification was, to ascertain all those

who were non-praedials, that they might be recorded as the subjects of

emancipation in 1838. To his astonishment he found numbers of this class

who expressed a wish to remain apprentices until 1840. On one estate,

six out of eight took this course, on another, twelve out of fourteen,

and in some instances, _all_ the non-praedials determined to suffer it

out with the rest of their brethren, refusing to accept freedom until

with the whole body they could rise up and shout the jubilee of

universal disinthrallment. Here is a nobility worthy to compare with the

patience of the praedials. In connection with the conduct of the

non-praedials, he mentioned the following instance of white brutality

and negro magnanimity. A planter, whose negroes he was classifying,

brought forward a woman whom he claimed as a praedial. The woman

declared that she was a non-praedial, and on investigation it was

clearly proved that she had always been a domestic; and consequently

entitled to freedom in 1838. After the planter's claim was set aside,

the woman said, "_Now_ I will stay with massa, and be his 'prentice for

de udder two year."

Shortly before we left the Bay, our landlady, a colored woman,

introduced one of her neighbors, whose conversation afforded us a rare

treat. She was a colored lady of good appearance and lady like manners.

Supposing from her color that she had been prompted by strong sympathy

in our objects to seek an interview with us, we immediately introduced

the subject of slavery, stating that as we had a vast number of slaves

in our country, we had visited Jamaica to see how the freed people

behaved, with the hope that our countrymen might be encouraged to adopt

emancipation. "Alack a day!" The tawny madam shook her head, and, with

that peculiar creole whine, so expressive of contempt, said, "Can't say

any thing for you, sir--they not doing no good now, sir--the negroes

an't!"--and on she went abusing the apprentices, and denouncing

abolition. No American white lady could speak more disparagingly of the

niggers, than did this recreant descendant of the negro race. They did

no work, they stole, were insolent, insubordinate, and what not.

She concluded in the following elegiac strain, which did not fail to

touch our sympathies. "I can't tell what will become of us after 1840.

Our negroes will be taken away from us--we shall find no work to do

ourselves--we shall all have to beg, and who shall we beg from? _All

will be beggars, and we must starve_!"

Poor Miss L. is one of that unfortunate class who have hitherto gained a

meagre support from the stolen hire of a few slaves, and who, after

entire emancipation, will be stripped of every thing. This is the class

upon whom emancipation will fall most heavily; it will at once cast many

out of a situation of ease, into the humiliating dilemma of _laboring or

begging_--to the _latter_ of which alternatives, Miss L. seems inclined.

Let Miss L. be comforted! It is better to beg than to _steal_.

We proceeded from Morant Bay to Bath, a distance of fourteen miles,

where we put up at a neat cottage lodging-house, kept by Miss P., a

colored lady. Bath is a picturesque little village, embowered in

perpetual green, and lying at the foot of a mountain on one side, and on

the other by the margin of a rambling little river. It seems to have

accumulated around it and within it, all the verdure and foliage of a

tropical clime.

Having a letter of introduction, we called on the special magistrate for

that district--George Willis, Esq. As we entered his office, an

apprentice was led up in irons by a policeman, and at the same time

another man rode up with a letter from the master of the apprentice,

directing the magistrate to release him instantly. The facts of this

case, as Mr. W. himself explained them to us, will illustrate the

careless manner in which the magistrates administer the law. The master

had sent his apprentice to a neighboring estate, where there had been

some disturbance, to get his clothes, which had been left there. The

overseer of the estate finding an intruder on his property, had him

handcuffed forthwith, notwithstanding his repeated declarations that his

master had sent him. Having handcuffed him, he ordered him to be taken

before the special magistrate, Mr. W., who had him confined in the

station-house all night. Mr. W., in pursuance of the direction received

from the master, ordered the man to be released, but at the same time

repeatedly declared to him that the _overseer was not to blame for

arresting him_.

After this case was disposed of, Mr. W, turned to us. He said he had a

district of thirty miles in extent, including five thousand apprentices;

these he visited thrice every month. He stated that there had been a

gradual decrease of crime since he came to the district, which was early

in 1835. For example, in March, 1837, there were but twenty-four persons

punished, and in March, 1835, there were as many punished in a single

week. He explained this by saying that the apprentices had become

_better acquainted with the requirements of the law_. The chief offence

at present was _absconding from labor_.

This magistrate gave us an account of an alarming rebellion which had

lately occurred in his district, which we will venture to notice, since

it is the only serious disturbance on the part of the negroes, which has

taken place in the island, from the beginning of the apprenticeship.

About two weeks before, the apprentices on Thornton estate, amounting to

about ninety, had refused to work, and fled in a body to the woods,

where they still remained. Their complaint, according to our informant,

was, that their master had turned the cattle upon their provision

grounds, and all their provisions were destroyed, so that they could not

live. They, therefore, determined that they would not continue at work,

seeing they would be obliged to starve. Mr. W. stated that he had

visited the provision grounds, in company with two _disinterested

planters_, and he could affirm that the apprentices had _no just cause

of complaint_. It was true their fences had been broken down, and their

provisions had been somewhat injured, but the fence could be very easily

repaired, and there was an _abundance of yams left_ to furnish food for

the whole gang for some time to come--those that were destroyed being

chiefly young roots which would not have come to maturity for several

months. These statements were the substance of a formal report which he

had just prepared for the eye of Sir Lionel Smith, and which he was kind

enough to read to us. This was a fine report, truly, to come from a

special justice. To say nothing of the short time in which the fence

might be repaired, those were surely very dainty-mouthed cattle that

would consume those roots only which were so small that several months

would be requisite for their maturity. The report concluded with a

recommendation to his Excellency to take seminary vengeance upon a few

of the gang as soon as they could be arrested, since they had set such

an example to the surrounding apprentices. He could not see how order

and subordination could be preserved in his district unless such a

punishment was inflicted as would be a warning to all evil doers. He

further suggested the propriety of sending the maroons[A] after them, to

hunt them out of their hiding places and bring them to justice.

[Footnote A: The maroons are free negroes, inhabiting the mountains of

the interior, who were formerly hired by the authorities, or by

planters, to hunt up runaway slaves, and return them to their masters.

Unfortunately our own country is not without _its_ maroons.]

We chanced to obtain a different version of this affair, which, as it

was confirmed by different persons in Bath, both white and colored, who

had no connection with each other, we cannot help thinking it the

true one.

The apprentices on Thornton, are what is termed a jobbing gang, that is,

they are hired out by their master to any planter who may want their

services. Jobbing is universally regarded by the negroes as the worst

kind of service, for many reasons--principally because it often takes

them many miles from their homes, and they are still required to supply

themselves with food from their own provision grounds. They are allowed

to return home every Friday evening or Saturday, and stay till Monday

morning. The owner of the gang in question lately died--to whom it is

said they were greatly attached--and they passed into the hands of a Mr.

Jocken, the present overseer. Jocken is a notoriously cruel man. It was

scarcely a twelvemonth ago, that he was fined one hundred pounds

currency, and sentenced to imprisonment for three months in the Kingston

jail, _for tying one of his apprentices to a dead ox_, because the

animal died while in the care of the apprentice. He also confined a

woman in the same pen with a dead sheep, because she suffered the sheep

to die. Repeated acts of cruelty have caused Jocken to be regarded as a

monster in the community. From a knowledge of his character, the

apprentices of Thornton had a strong prejudice against him. One of the

earliest acts after he went among them, was to break down their fences,

and turn his cattle into their provision grounds. He then ordered them

to go to a distant estate to work. This they refused to do, and when he

attempted to compel them to go, they left the estate in a body, and went

to the woods. This is what is called a _state of open rebellion_, and

for this they were to be hunted like beasts, and to suffer such a

terrible punishment as would deter all other apprentices from taking a

similar step.

This Jocken is the same wretch who wantonly handcuffed the apprentice,

who went on to his estate by the direction of his master.

Mr. Willis showed us a letter which he had received that morning from a

planter in his district, who had just been trying an experiment in job

work, (i.e., paying his people so much for a certain amount of work.) He

had made a proposition to one of the head men on the estate, that he

would give him a doubloon an acre if he would get ten acres of cane land

holed. The man employed a large number of apprentices, and accomplished

the job on three successive Saturdays. They worked at the rate of nearly

one hundred holes per day for each man, whereas the usual day's work is

only seventy-five holes.

Mr. W. bore testimony that the great body of the negroes in his district

were very peaceable. There were but a few _incorrigible fellows_, that

did all the mischief. When any disturbance took place on an estate, he

could generally tell who the individual offenders were. He did not think

there would be any serious difficulty after 1840. However, the result he

thought would _greatly depend on the conduct of the managers!_

We met in Bath with the proprietor of a coffee estate situated a few

miles in the country. He gave a very favorable account of the people on

his estate; stating that they were as peaceable and industrious as he

could desire, that he had their confidence, and fully expected to retain

it after entire emancipation. He anticipated no trouble whatever, and he

felt assured, too, that if _the planters would conduct in a proper

manner_, emancipation would be a blessing to the whole colony.

We called on the Wesleyan missionary, whom we found the decided friend

and advocate of freedom. He scrupled not to declare his sentiments

respecting the special magistrate, whom he declared to be a cruel and

dishonest man. He seemed to take delight in flogging the apprentices. He

had got a whipping machine made and erected in front of the Episcopal

church in the village of Bath. It was a frame of a triangular shape, the

base of which rested firmly on the ground, and having a perpendicular

beam from the base to the apex or angle. To this beam the apprentice's

body was lashed, with his face towards the machine, and his arms

extended at right angles, and tied by the wrists. The missionary had

witnessed the floggings at this machine repeatedly, as it stood but a

few steps from his house. Before we reached Bath, the machine had been

removed from its conspicuous place and _concealed in the bushes, that

the governor might not see it when he visited the village_.

As this missionary had been for several years laboring in the island,

and had enjoyed the best opportunities to become extensively acquainted

with the negroes, we solicited from him a written answer to a number of

inquiries. We make some extracts from his communication.

1. Have the facilities for missionary effort greatly increased since the

abolition of slavery?

The opportunities of the apprentices to attend the means of grace are

greater than during absolute slavery. They have now one day and a half

every week to work for their support, leaving the Sabbath free to

worship God.

2. Do you anticipate that these facilities will increase still more

after entire freedom?

Yes. The people will then have _six days of their own to labor for their

bread_, and will be at liberty to go to the house of God every Sabbath.

Under the present system, the magistrate often takes away the Saturday,

as a punishment, and then they must either work on the Sabbath

or starve.

3. Are the negroes likely to revenge by violence the wrongs which they

have suffered, after they obtain their freedom?

_I never heard the idea suggested, nor should I have thought of it had

you not made the inquiry._

We called on Mr. Rogers, the teacher of a Mico charity infant school in

Bath. Mr. R., his wife and daughter, are all engaged in this work. They

have a day school, and evening school three evenings in the week, and

Sabbath school twice each Sabbath. The evening schools are for the

benefit of the adult apprentices, who manifest the greatest eagerness to

learn to read. After working all day, they will come several miles to

school, and stay cheerfully till nine o'clock.

Mr. R. furnished us with a written communication, from which we extract

the following.

_Quest._ Are the apprentices desirous of being instructed?

_Ans._ Most assuredly they are; in proof of which I would observe that

since our establishment in Bath, the people not only attend the schools

regularly, but if they obtain a leaf of a book with letters upon it,

that is their _constant companion_. We have found mothers with their

sucking babes in their arms, standing night after night in their classes

learning the alphabet.