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.

_Q._ Are the negroes grateful for attentions and favors?

_A._ They are; I have met some who have been so much affected by acts of

kindness, that they have burst into tears, exclaiming, 'Massa so

kind--my heart full.' Their affection to their teachers is very

remarkable. On my return lately from Kingston, after a temporary

absence, the negroes flocked to our residence and surrounded the chaise,

saying, 'We glad to see massa again; we glad to see school massa.' On my

way through an estate some time ago, some of the children observed me,

and in a transport of joy cried, 'Thank God, massa come again! Bless God

de Savior, massa come again!'

Mr. R., said he, casually met with an apprentice whose master had lately

died. The man was in the habit of visiting his master's grave every

Saturday. He said to Mr. R., "Me go to massa grave, and de water come

into me yeye; but me can't help it, massa, _de water will come into

me yeye_."

The Wesleyan missionary told us, that two apprentices, an aged man and

his daughter, a young woman, had been brought up by their master before

the special magistrate who sentenced them to several days confinement in

the house of correction at Morant Bay and to dance the treadmill. When

the sentence was passed the daughter entreated that she might be allowed

to _do her father's part_, as well as her own, on the treadmill, for he

was too old to dance the wheel--it would kill him.

From Bath we went into the Plantain Garden River Valley, one of the

richest and most beautiful savannahs in the island. It is an extensive

plain, from one to three miles wide, and about six miles long. The

Plantain Garden River, a small stream, winds through the midst of the

valley lengthwise, emptying into the sea. Passing through the valley, we

went a few miles south of it to call on Alexander Barclay, Esq., to whom

we had a letter of introduction. Mr. Barclay is a prominent member of

the assembly, and an attorney for eight estates. He made himself

somewhat distinguished a few years ago by writing an octavo volume of

five hundred pages in defence of the colonies, i.e., in defence of

colonial slavery. It was a reply to Stephen's masterly work against West

India slavery, and was considered by the Jamaicans a triumphant

vindication of their "peculiar institutions." We went several miles out

of our route expressly to have an interview with so zealous and

celebrated a champion of slavery. We were received with marked courtesy

by Mr. B., who constrained us to spend a day and night with him at his

seat at Fairfield. One of the first objects that met our eye in Mr. B.'s

dining hall was a splendid piece of silver plate, which was presented to

him by the planters of St. Thomas in the East, in consideration of his

able defence of colonial slavery. We were favorably impressed with Mr.

B.'s intelligence, and somewhat so with his present sentiments

respecting slavery. We gathered from him that he had resisted with all

his might the anti-slavery measures of the English government, and

exerted every power to prevent the introduction of the apprenticeship

system. After he saw that slavery would inevitably be abolished, he drew

up at length a plan of emancipation according to which the condition of

the slave was to be commuted into that of the old English _villein_--he

was to be made an appendage to _the soil_ instead of the "chattel

personal" of the master, the whip was to be partially abolished, a

modicum of wages was to be allowed the slave, and so on. There was to be

no fixed period when this system would terminate, but it was to fade

gradually and imperceptibly into entire freedom. He presented a copy of

his scheme to the then governor, the Earl of Mulgrave, requesting that

it might be forwarded to the home government. Mr. B. said that the

anti-slavery party in England had acted from the blind impulses of

religious fanaticism, and had precipitated to its issue a work which

required many years of silent preparation in order to its safe

accomplishment. He intimated that the management of abolition ought to

have been left with the colonists; they had been the long experienced

managers of slavery, and they were the only men qualified to superintend

its burial, and give it a decent interment.

He did not think that the apprenticeship afforded any clue to the dark

mystery of 1840. Apprenticeship was so inconsiderably different from

slavery, that it furnished no more satisfactory data for judging of the

results of entire freedom than slavery itself. Neither would he consent

to be comforted by the actual results of emancipation in Antigua.

Taking leave of Mr. Barclay, we returned to the Plantain Garden River

Valley, and called at the Golden Grove, one of the most splendid estates

in that magnificent district. This is an estate of two thousand acres;

it has five hundred apprentices and one hundred free children. The

average annual crop is six hundred hogsheads of sugar. Thomas McCornock,

Esq., the attorney of this estate, is the custos, or chief magistrate of

the parish, and colonel of the parish militia. There is no man in all

the parish of greater consequence, either in fact or in seeming

self-estimation, than Thomas McCornock, Esq. He is a Scotchman, as is

also Mr. Barclay. The custos received us with as much freedom as the

dignity of his numerous offices would admit of. The overseer, (manager,)

Mr. Duncan, is an intelligent, active, business man, and on any other

estate than Golden Grove, would doubtless be a personage of considerable

distinction. He conducted us through the numerous buildings, from the

boiling-house to the pig-stye. The principal complaint of the overseer,

was that he could not make the people work to any good purpose. They

were not at all refractory or disobedient; there was no difficulty in

getting them on to the field; but when they were there, they moved

without any life or energy. They took no interest in their work, and he

was obliged to be watching and scolding them all the time, or else they

would do nothing. We had not gone many steps after this observation,

before we met with a practical illustration of it. A number of the

apprentices had been ordered that morning to cart away some dirt to a

particular place. When we approached them, Mr. D. found that one of the

"wains" was standing idle. He inquired of the driver why he was keeping

the team idle. The reply was, that there was nothing there for it to do;

there were enough other wains to carry away all the dirt. "Then," inquired

the overseer with an ill-concealed irritation, "why did not go to some

other work?" The overseer then turned to us and said, "You see, sir,

what lazy dogs the apprentices are--this is the way they do every day,

if they are not closely watched." It was not long after this little

incident, before the overseer remarked that the apprentices worked very

well during their own time, _when they were paid for it_. When we went

into the hospital, Mr. D. directed out attention to one fact, which to

him was very provoking. A great portion of the patients that come in

during the week, unable to work, are in the habit of getting well on

Friday evening, so that they can go out on Saturday and Sunday; but on

Monday morning they are sure to be sick again, then they return to the

hospital and remain very poorly till Friday evening, when they get well

all at once, and ask permission to go out. The overseer saw into the

trick; but he could find no medicine that could cure the negroes of that

intermittent sickness. The Antigua planters discovered the remedy for

it, and doubtless Mr. D. will make the grand discovery in 1840.

On returning to the "great house," we found the custos sitting in state,

ready to communicate any official information which might be called for.

He expressed similar sentiments in the main, with those of Mr. Barclay.

He feared for the consequences of complete emancipation; the negroes

would to a great extent abandon the sugar cultivation and retire to the

woods, there to live in idleness, planting merely yams enough to keep

them alive, and in the process of time, retrograding into African

barbarism. The attorney did not see how it was possible to prevent this.

When asked whether he expected that such would be the case with the

negroes on Golden Grove, he replied that he did not think it would,

except with a very few persons. His people had been _so well treated_,

and had _so many comforts_, that they would not be at all likely to

abandon the estate! [Mark that!] Whose are the people that will desert

after 1840? Not Thomas McCornock's, Esq.! _They are too well situated.

Whose_ then will desert? _Mr. Jocken's_, or in other words, those who

are ill-treated, who are cruelly driven, whose fences are broken down,

and whose provision grounds are exposed to the cattle. They, and they

alone, will retire to the woods who can't get food any where else!

The custos thought the apprentices were behaving very ill. On being

asked if he had any trouble with his, he said, O, no! his apprentices

did quite well, and so did the apprentices generally, in the Plantain

Garden River Valley. But in _far off parishes_, he _heard_ that they

were very refractory and troublesome.

The custos testified that the negroes were very easily managed. He said

he had often thought that he would rather have the charge of six hundred

negroes, than of two hundred English sailors. He spoke also of the

temperate habits of the negroes. He had been in the island twenty-two

years, and he had never seen a negro woman drunk, on the estate. It was

very seldom that the men got drunk. There were not more than ten men on

Golden Grove, out of a population of five hundred, who were in the habit

of occasionally getting intoxicated. He also remarked that the negroes

were a remarkable people for their attention to the old and infirm among

them; they seldom suffered them to want, if it was in their power to

supply them. Among other remarks of the custos, was this sweeping

declaration--"_No man in his senses can pretend to defend slavery._"

After spending a day at Golden Grove, we proceeded to the adjacent

estate of Amity Hall. On entering the residence of the manager, Mr.

Kirkland, we were most gratefully surprised to find him engaged in

family prayers. It was the first time and the last that we heard the

voice of prayer in a Jamaican planter's house. We were no less

gratefully surprised to see a white lady, to whom we were introduced as

Mrs. Kirkland, and several modest and lovely little children. It was the

first and the last _family circle_ that we were permitted to see among

the planters of that licentious colony. The motley group of colored

children--of every age from tender infancy--which we found on other

estates, revealed the state of domestic manners among the planters.

Mr. K. regarded the abolition of slavery as a great blessing to the

colony; it was true that the apprenticeship was a wretchedly bad system,

but notwithstanding, things moved smoothly on his estate. He informed us

that the negroes on Amity Hall had formerly borne the character of being

the _worst gang in the parish_; and when he first came to the estate, he

found that half the truth had not been told of them; but they had become

remarkably peaceable and subordinate. It was his policy to give them

every comfort that he possibly could. Mr. K. made the same declaration,

which has been so often repeated in the course of this narrative, i.e.,

that if any of the estates were abandoned, it would be owing to the

harsh treatment of the people. He knew many overseers and book-keepers

who were cruel driving men, and he should not be surprised if _they_

lost a part, or all, of their laborers. He made one remark which we had

not heard before. There were some estates, he said, which would probably

be abandoned, for the same reason that they ought never to have been

cultivated, because they require _almost double labor_;--such are the

mountainous estates and barren, worn-out properties, which nothing but a

system of forced labor could possibly retain in cultivation. But the

idea that the negroes generally would leave their comfortable homes, and

various privileges on the estates, and retire to the wild woods, he

ridiculed as preposterous in the extreme. Mr. K. declared repeatedly

that he could not look forward to 1840, but with the most sanguine

hopes; he confidently believed that the introduction of complete freedom

would be the _regeneration of the island_. He alluded to the memorable

declaration of Lord Belmore, (made memorable by the excitement which it

caused among the colonists,) in his valedictory address to the assembly,

on the eve of his departure for England.[A] "Gentlemen," said he, "the

resources of this noble island will never be fully developed until

slavery is abolished!" For this manly avowal the assembly ignobly

refused him the usual marks of respect and honor at his departure. Mr.

K. expected to see Jamaica become a new world under the enterprise and

energies of freedom. There were a few disaffected planters, who would

probably remain so, and leave the islands after emancipation. It would

be a blessing to the country if such men left it, for as long as they

were disaffected, they were the enemies of its prosperity.

[Footnote A: Lord Belmore left the government of Jamaica, a short time

before the abolition act passed in parliament.]

Mr. K. conducted us through the negro quarters, which are situated on

the hill side, nearly a mile from his residence. We went into several of

the houses; which were of a better style somewhat than the huts in

Antigua and Barbadoes--larger, better finished and furnished. Some few

of them had verandahs or porches on one or more sides, after the West

India fashion, closed in with _jalousies_. In each of the houses to

which we were admitted, there was one apartment fitted up in a very neat

manner, with waxed floor, a good bedstead, and snow white coverings, a

few good chairs, a mahogany sideboard, ornamented with dishes,

decanters, etc.

From Amity Hall, we drove to Manchioneal, a small village ten miles

north of the Plantain Garden River Valley. We had a letter to the

special magistrate for that district, R. Chamberlain, Esq., a colored

gentleman, and the first magistrate we found in the parish of St. Thomas

in the East, who was faithful to the interests of the apprentices. He

was a boarder at the public house, where we were directed for lodgings,

and as we spent a few days in the village, we had opportunities of

obtaining much information from him, as well as of attending some of his

courts. Mr. C. had been only five months in the district of Manchioneal,

having been removed thither from a distant district. Being a friend of

the apprentices, he is hated and persecuted by the planters. He gave us

a gloomy picture of the oppressions and cruelties of the planters. Their

complaints brought before him are often of the most trivial kind; yet

because he does not condemn the apprentices to receive a punishment

which the most serious offences alone could justify him in inflicting,

they revile and denounce him as unfit for his station. He represents the

planters as not having the most distant idea that it is the province of

the special magistrate to secure justice to the apprentice; but they

regard it as his sole duty to _help them_ in getting from the laborers

as much work as whips, and chains, and tread-wheels can extort. His

predecessor, in the Manchioneal district, answered perfectly to the

planters' _beau ideal_. He ordered a _cat_ to be kept on every estate in

his district, to be ready for use as he went around on his weekly

visits. Every week he inspected the cats, and when they became too much

worn to do good execution, he _condemned_ them, and ordered new ones

to be made.

Mr. C. said the most frequent complaints made by the planters are for

_insolence_. He gave a few specimens of what were regarded by the

planters as serious offences. An overseer will say to his apprentice,

"Work along there faster, you lazy villain, or I'll strike you;" the

apprentice will reply, "You _can't_ strike me now," and for this he is

taken before the magistrate on the complaint of _insolence_. An

overseer, in passing the gang on the field, will hear them singing; he

will order them, in a peremptory tone to stop instantly, and if they

continue singing, they are complained of for _insubordination_. An

apprentice has been confined to the hospital with disease,--when he gets

able to walk, tired of the filthy sick house, he hobbles to his hut,

where he may have the attentions of his wife until he gets well. That is

called _absconding from labor_! Where the magistrate does not happen to

be an independent man, the complaint is sustained, and the poor invalid

is sentenced to the treadmill for absenting himself from work. It is

easy to conjecture the dreadful consequence. The apprentice, debilitated

by sickness, dragged off twenty-five miles on foot to Morant Bay,

mounted on the wheel, is unable to keep the step with the stronger ones,

slips off and hangs by the wrists, and his flesh is mangled and torn by

the wheel.

The apprentices frequently called at our lodgings to complain to Mr. C.

of the hard treatment of their masters. Among the numerous distressing

cases which we witnessed, we shall never forget that of a poor little

negro boy, of about twelve, who presented himself one afternoon before

Mr. C., with a complaint against his master for violently beating him. A

gash was cut in his head, and the blood had flowed freely. He fled from

his master, and came to Mr. C. for refuge. He belonged to A. Ross, Esq.,

of Mulatto Run estate. We remembered that we had a letter of

introduction to that planter, and we had designed visiting him, but

after witnessing this scene, we resolved not to go near a monster who

could inflict such a wound, with his own hand, upon a child. We were

highly gratified with the kind and sympathizing manner in which Mr. C.

spoke with the unfortunate beings who, in the extremity of their wrongs,

ventured to his door.

At the request of the magistrate we accompanied him, on one occasion, to

the station-house, where he held a weekly court. We had there a good

opportunity to observe the hostile feelings of the planters towards this

faithful officer--"faithful among the faithless," (though we are glad

that we cannot quite add, "_only he_.")

A number of managers, overseers, and book-keepers, assembled; some with

complaints, and some to have their apprentices classified. They all set

upon the magistrate like bloodhounds upon a lone stag. They strove

together with one accord, to subdue his independent spirit by taunts,

jeers, insults, intimidations and bullyings. He was obliged to threaten

one of the overseers with arrest, on account of his abusive conduct. We

were actually amazed at the intrepidity of the magistrate. We were

convinced from what we saw that day, that only the most fearless and

conscientious men could be _faithful magistrates_ in Jamaica. Mr. C.

assured us that he met with similar indignities every time he held his

courts, and on most of the estates that he visited. It was in his power

to punish them severely, but he chose to use all possible forbearance,

so as not to give the planters any grounds of complaint.

On a subsequent day we accompanied Mr. C. in one of his estate visits.

As it was late in the afternoon, he called at but one estate, the name

of which was Williamsfield. Mr. Gordon, the overseer of Williamsfield,

is among the fairest specimens of planters. He has naturally a generous

disposition, which, like that of Mr. Kirkland, has out-lived the

witherings of slavery.

He informed us that his people worked as well under the apprenticeship

system, as ever they did during slavery; and he had every encouragement

that they would do still better after they were completely free. He was

satisfied that he should be able to conduct his estate at much less

expense after 1840; he thought that fifty men would do as much then as a

hundred do now. We may add here a similar remark of Mr. Kirkland--that

forty freemen would accomplish as much as eighty slaves. Mr. Gordon

hires his people on Saturdays, and he expressed his astonishment at the

increased vigor with which they worked when they were to receive wages.

He pointedly condemned the driving system which was resorted to by many

of the planters. They foolishly endeavored to keep up the coercion of

slavery, _and they had the special magistrates incessantly flogging the

apprentices_. The planters also not unfrequently take away the provision

grounds from their apprentices, and in every way oppress and

harass them.

In the course of the conversation Mr. G. accidentally struck upon a

fresh vein of facts, respecting the SLAVERY OF BOOK-KEEPERS,[A] _under

the old system_. The book-keepers, said Mr. G., were the complete slaves

of the overseers, who acted like despots on the estates. They were

mostly young men from England, and not unfrequently had considerable

refinement; but ignorant of the treatment which book-keepers had to

submit to, and allured by the prospect of becoming wealthy by

plantership, they came to Jamaica and entered as candidates. They soon

discovered the cruel bondage in which they were involved. The overseers

domineered over them, and stormed at them as violently as though they

were the most abject slaves. They were allowed no privileges such as

their former habits impelled them to seek. If they played a flute in the

hearing of the overseer, they were commanded to be silent instantly. If

they dared to put a gold ring on their finger, even that trifling

pretension to gentility was detected and disallowed by the jealous

overseer. (These things were specified by Mr. G. himself.) They were

seldom permitted to associate with the overseers as equals. The only

thing which reconciled the book-keepers to this abject state, was the

reflection that they might one day _possibly_ become overseers

themselves, and then they could exercise the same authority over others.

In addition to this degradation, the book-keepers suffered great

hardships. Every morning (during slavery) they were obliged to be in the

field before day; they had to be there as soon as the slaves, in order

to call the roll, and mark absentees, if any. Often Mr. G. and the other

gentleman had gone to the field, when it was so dark that they could not

see to call the roll, and the negroes have all lain down on their hoes,

and slept till the light broke. Sometimes there would be a thick dew on

the ground, and the air was so cold and damp, that they would be

completely chilled. When they were shivering on the ground, the negroes

would often lend them their blankets, saying, "Poor _busha pickaninny_

sent out here from England to die." Mr. Gordon said that his

constitution had been permanently injured by such exposure. Many young

men, he said, had doubtless been killed by it. During crop time, the

book-keepers had to be up every night till twelve o'clock, and every

other night _all night_, superintending the work in the boiling-house,

and at the mill. They did not have rest even on the Sabbath; they must

have the mill put about (set to the wind so as to grind) by sunset every

Sabbath. Often the mills were in the wind before four o'clock, on

Sabbath afternoon. They knew of slaves being flogged for not being on

the spot by sunset, though it was known that they had been to meeting.

Mr. G. said that he had a young friend who came from England with him,

and acted as book-keeper. His labors and exposures were so intolerable,

that he had often said to Mr. G., confidentially, _that if the slaves

should rise in rebellion, he would most cheerfully join them_! Said Mr.

G., _there was great rejoicing_ among the book-keepers in August 1834!

_The abolition of slavery was_ EMANCIPATION TO THE BOOK-KEEPERS.

[Footnote A: The book-keepers are subordinate overseers and drivers;

they are generally young white men, who after serving a course of years

in a sort of apprenticeship, are promoted to managers of estates.]

No complaints were brought before Mr. Chamberlain. Mr. Gordon pleasantly

remarked when we arrived, that he had some cases which he should have

presented if the magistrate had come a little earlier, but he presumed

he should forget them before his next visit. When we left Williamsfield,

Mr. C. informed us that during five months there had been but two cases

of complaint on that estate--and but _a single instance of punishment._

Such are the results where there is a good manager and a good special

magistrate.

On Sabbath we attended service in the Baptist chapel, of which Rev. Mr.

Kingdon is pastor. The chapel, which is a part of Mr. K.'s

dwelling-house, is situated on the summit of a high mountain which

overlooks the sea. As seen from the valley below, it appears to topple

on the very brink of a frightful precipice. It is reached by a winding

tedious road, too rugged to admit of a chaise, and in some places so

steep as to try the activity of a horse. As we approached nearer, we

observed the people climbing up in throngs by various footpaths, and

halting in the thick woods which skirted the chapel, the men to put on

their shoes, which they had carried in their hands up the mountain, and

the women to draw on their white stockings and shoes. On entering the

place of worship, we found it well filled with the apprentices, who came

from many miles around in every direction. The services had commenced

when we arrived. We heard an excellent sermon from the devoted and pious

missionary, Mr. Kingdon, whose praise is among all the good throughout

the island, and who is eminently known as the negro's friend. After the

sermon, we were invited to make a few remarks; and the minister briefly

stated to the congregation whence we had come, and what was the object

of our visit. We cannot soon forget the scene which followed. We begun

by expressing, in simple terms, the interest which we felt in the

temporal and spiritual concerns of the people present, and scarcely had

we uttered a sentence when the whole congregation were filled with

emotion. Soon they burst into tears--some sobbed, others cried aloud;

insomuch that for a time we were unable to proceed. We were, indeed, not

a little astonished at so unusual a scene; it was a thing which we were

by no means expecting to see. Being at a loss to account for it, we

inquired of Mr. K. afterwards, who told us that it was occasioned by our

expressions of sympathy and regard. They were so unaccustomed to hear

such language from the lips of white people, that it fell upon them like

rain upon the parched earth. The idea that one who was a stranger and a

foreigner should feel an interest in their welfare, was to them, in such

circumstances, peculiarly affecting, and stirred the deep fountains of

their hearts.

After the services, the missionary, anxious to further our objects,

proposed that we should hold an interview with a number of the

apprentices; and he accordingly invited fifteen of them into his study,

and introduced them to us by name, stating also the estates to which

they severally belonged. We had thus an opportunity of seeing the

_representatives of twelve different estates_, men of trust on their

respective estates, mostly constables and head boilers. For nearly two

hours we conversed with these men, making inquiries on all points

connected with slavery, the apprenticeship, and the expected

emancipation.

From no interview, during our stay in the colonies, did we derive so

much information respecting the real workings of the apprenticeship;

from none did we gain such an insight into the character and disposition

of the negroes. The company was composed of intelligent and pious

men;--so manly and dignified were they in appearance, and so elevated in

their sentiments, that we could with difficulty realize that they were

_slaves_. They were wholly unreserved in their communications, though

they deeply implicated their masters, the special magistrates, and

others in authority. It is not improbable that they would have shrunk

from some of the disclosures which they made, had they known that they

would be published. Nevertheless we feel assured that in making them

public, we shall not betray the informants, concealing as we do their

names and the estates to which they belong.

With regard to the wrongs and hardships of the apprenticeship much as

said; we can only give a small part.

Their masters were often very harsh with them, more so than when they

were slaves. They could not flog them, but they would scold them, and

swear at them, and call them hard names, which hurt their feelings

almost as much as it would if they were to flog them. They would not

allow them as many privileges as they did formerly. Sometimes they would

take their provision grounds away, and sometimes they would go on their

grounds and carry away provisions for their own use without paying for

them, or as much as asking their leave. They had to bear this, for it

was useless to complain--they could get no justice; there was no law in

Manchioneal. The special magistrate would only hear the master, and

would not allow the apprentices to say any thing for themselves[A]. The

magistrate would do just as the busha (master) said. If he say flog him,

he flog him; if he say, send him to Morant Bay, (to the treadmill,) de

magistrate send him. If we happen to laugh before de busha, he complain

to de magistrate, and we get licked. If we go to a friend's house, when

we hungry, to get something to eat, and happen to get lost in de woods

between, we are called runaways, and are punished severely. Our half

Friday is taken away from us; we must give that time to busha for a

little salt-fish, which was always allowed us during slavery. If we lay

in bed after six o'clock, they take away our Saturday too. If we lose a

little time from work, they make us pay a great deal more time. They

stated, and so did several of the missionaries, that the loss of the

half Friday was very serious to them; as it often rendered it impossible

for them to get to meeting on Sunday. The whole work of cultivating

their grounds, preparing their produce for sale, carrying it to the

distant market, (Morant Bay, and sometimes further,) and returning, all

this was, by the loss of the Friday afternoon, crowded into Saturday,

and it was often impossible for them to get back from market before

Sabbath morning; then they had to dress and go six or ten miles further

to chapel, or stay away altogether, which, from weariness and worldly

cares, they would be strongly tempted to do. This they represented as

being a grievous thing to them. Said one of the men; in a peculiarly

solemn and earnest manner, while the tears stood in his eyes, "I declare

to you, massa, if de Lord spare we to be free, we be much more

'ligiours--_we be wise to many more tings_; we be better Christians;

because den we have all de Sunday for go to meeting. But now de holy

time taken up in work for we food." These words were deeply impressed

upon us by the intense earnestness with which they were spoken. They

revealed "the heart's own bitterness." There was also a lighting up of

joy and hope in the countenance of that child of God, as he looked

forward to the time when he might become _wise to many more tings_.

[Footnote A: We would observe, that they did not refer to Mr.

Chamberlain, but to another magistrate, whose name they mentioned.]

They gave a heart-sickening account of the cruelties of the treadmill.

They spoke of the apprentices having their wrists tied to the handboard,

and said it was very common for them to fall and hang against the wheel.

Some who had been sent to the treadmill, had actually died from the

injuries they there received. They were often obliged to see their wives

dragged off to Morant Bay, and tied to the treadmill, even when they

were in a state of pregnancy. They suffered a great deal of misery from

_that; but they could not help it_.

Sometimes it was a wonder to themselves how they could endure all the

provocations and sufferings of the apprenticeship; _it was only "by de

mercy of God_!"

They were asked why they did not complain to the special magistrates.

They replied, that it did no good, for the magistrates would not take

any notice of their complaints, besides, it made the masters treat them

still worse. Said one, "We go to de magistrate to complain, and den when

we come back de busha do all him can to vex us. He _wingle_ (tease) us,

and _wingle_ us; de book-keeper curse us and treaten us; de constable he

scold us, and call hard names, and dey all strive to make we mad, so we

say someting wrong, and den dey take we to de magistrate for insolence."

Such was the final consequence of complaining to the magistrate. We

asked them why they did not complain, when they had a good magistrate

who would do them justice. Their answer revealed a new fact. They were

afraid to complain to a magistrate, who they knew was their friend,

_because their masters told them that the magistrate would soon be

changed, and another would come who would flog them; and that for every

time they dared to complain to the GOOD magistrate, they would be

flogged when the BAD one came_. They said their masters had explained it

all to them long ago.

We inquired of them particularly what course they intended to take when

they should become free. We requested them to speak, not only with

reference to themselves, but of the apprentices generally, as far as

they knew their views. They said the apprentices expected to work on the

estates, if they were allowed to do so. They had no intention of leaving

work. Nothing would cause them to leave their estates but bad treatment;

if their masters were harsh, they would go to another estate, where they

would get better treatment. They would be _obliged_ to work when they

were free; even more than now, for _then_ they would have no other

dependence.

One tried to prove to us by reasoning, that the people would work

when they were free. Said he, "In slavery time we work _even_ wid de

whip, now we work 'till better--_what tink we will do when we free?

Won't_ we work den, _when we get paid_?" He appealed to us so earnestly,

that we could not help acknowledging we were fully convinced. However,

in order to establish the point still more clearly, he stated some

facts, such as the following:

During slavery, it took six men to tend the coppers in boiling sugar,

and it was thought that fewer could not possibly do the work; but now,

since the boilers are paid for their extra time, the work is monopolized

by _three_ men. They _would not have any help_; they did all the work

"_dat dey might get all de pay_."

We sounded them thoroughly on their views of law and freedom. We

inquired whether they expected to be allowed to do as they pleased when

they were free. On this subject they spoke very rationally. Said one,

"We could never live widout de law; (we use, his very expressions) we

must have some law when we free. In other countries, where dey are free,

_don't_ dey have law? Wouldn't dey shoot one another if they did not

have law?" Thus they reasoned about freedom. Their chief complaint

against the apprenticeship was, that it did not allow them _justice_.

"_There was no law now_." They had been told by the governor, that there

was the same law for all the island; but they knew better, for there was

more justice done them in some districts than in others.

Some of their expressions indicated very strongly the characteristic

kindness of the negro. They would say, we work now as well as we can

_for the sake of peace; any thing for peace_. Don't want to be

complained of to the magistrate; don't like to be called hard names--do

any thing to keep peace. Such expressions were repeatedly made. We asked

them what they thought of the domestics being emancipated in 1838, while

they had to remain apprentices two years longer? They said, "it bad

enough--but we know de law make it so, and _for peace sake_, we will be

satisfy. _But we murmur in we minds_."

We asked what they expected to do with the old and infirm, after

freedom? They said, "we will support dem--as how dey brought us up when

we was pickaninny, and now we come trong, must care for dem." In such a

spirit did these apprentices discourse for two hours. They won greatly

upon our sympathy and respect. The touching story of their wrongs, the

artless unbosoming of their hopes, their forgiving spirit toward their

masters, their distinct views of their own rights, their amiable bearing

under provocation, their just notions of law, and of a state of

freedom--these things were well calculated to excite our admiration for

them, and their companions in suffering. Having prayed with the company,

and commended them to the grace of God, and the salvation of Jesus

Christ, we shook hands with them individually, and separated from them,

never more to see them, until we meet at the bar of God.

While one of us was prosecuting the foregoing inquiries in St. Thomas in

the East, the other was performing a horse-back tour among the mountains

of St. Andrews and Port Royal. We had been invited by Stephen Bourne,

Esq., special magistrate for one of the rural districts in those

parishes, to spend a week in his family, and accompany him in his

official visits to the plantations embraced in his commission--an

invitation we were very glad to accept, as it laid open to us at the

same time three important sources of information,--the magistrate, the

planter, and the apprentice.

The sun was just rising as we left Kingston, and entered the high road.

The air, which the day before had been painfully hot and stived, was

cool and fresh, and from flowers and spice-trees, on which the dew still

lay, went forth a thousand fragrant exhalations. Our course for about

six miles, lay over the broad, low plain, which spreads around Kingston,

westward to the highlands of St. Andrews, and southward beyond

Spanishtown. All along the road, and in various directions in the

distance, were seen the residences--uncouthly termed 'pens'--of

merchants and gentlemen of wealth, whose business frequently calls them

to town. Unlike Barbadoes, the fields here were protected by walls and

hedges, with broad gateways and avenues leading to the house. We soon

began to meet here and there, at intervals, person going to the market

with fruits and provisions. The number continually increased, and at the

end of an hour, they could be seen trudging over the fields, and along

the by-paths and roads, on every hand. Some had a couple of stunted

donkeys yoked to a ricketty cart,--others had mules with

pack-saddles--but the many loaded their own heads, instead of the

donkeys and mules. Most of them were well dressed, and all civil and

respectful in their conduct.

Invigorated by the mountain air, and animated by the novelty and

grandeur of the mountain scenery, through which we had passed, we

arrived at 'Grecian Regale' in season for an early West Indian

breakfast, (8 o'clock.) Mr. Bourne's district is entirely composed of

coffee plantations, and embraces three thousand apprentices. The people

on coffee plantations are not worked so hard as those employed on sugar

estates; but they are more liable to suffer from insufficient food

and clothing.

After breakfast we accompanied Mr. Bourne on a visit to the plantations,

but there were no complaints either from the master or apprentice,

except on one. Here Mr. B. was hailed by a hoary-headed man, sitting at

the side of his house. He said that he was lame and sick, and could not

work, and complained that his master did not give him any food. All he

had to eat was given him by a relative. As the master was not at home,

Mr. B. could not attend to the complaint at that time, but promised to

write the master about it in the course of the day. He informed us that

the aged and disabled were very much neglected under the apprenticeship.

When the working days are over, the profit days are over, and how few in

any country are willing to support an animal which is past labor? If

these complaints are numerous under the new system, when magistrates are

all abroad to remedy them, what must it have been during slavery, when

master and magistrate were the same!

On one of the plantations we called at the house of an emigrant, of

which some hundreds have been imported from different parts of Europe,

since emancipation. He had been in the island eighteen months, and was

much dissatisfied with his situation. The experiment of importing whites

to Jamaica as laborers, has proved disastrous--an unfortunate

speculation to all parties, and all parties wish them back again.

We had some conversation with several apprentices, who called on Mr.

Bourne for advice and aid. They all thought the apprenticeship very

hard, but still, on the whole, liked it better than slavery. They "were

killed too bad,"--that was their expression--during slavery--were worked

hard and terribly flogged. They were up ever so early and late--went out

in the mountains to work, when so cold busha would have to cover himself

up on the ground. Had little time to eat, or go to meeting. 'Twas all

slash, slash! Now they couldn't be flogged, unless the magistrate said

so. Still the busha was very hard to them, and many of the apprentices

run away to the woods, they are so badly used.

The next plantation which we visited was Dublin Castle. It lies in a

deep valley, quite enclosed by mountains. The present attorney has been

in the island nine years, and is attorney for several other properties.

In England he was a religious man, and intimately acquainted with the

eccentric Irving. For a while after he came out he preached to the

slaves, but having taken a black concubine, and treating those under his

charge oppressively, he soon obtained a bad character among the blacks,

and his meetings were deserted. He is now a most passionate and wicked

man, having cast off even the show of religion.