Mahaica, August.
If I were to proceed only upon the knowledge I have of your feelings, I
should avoid laying before you a history, which is more direful and
afflicting than any arising from the ravages of the much-dreaded fever
of this climate; but, when I recollect that it was emphatically your
request that I would relate every fact which should present itself to my
observation, respecting the slaves, I cannot refrain from telling you,
that since my arrival at Mahaica, one of the most shocking instances of
barbarity has occurred, which was ever perpetrated, even in a land of
slavery.
Two unhappy negroes, a man and a woman, having been driven by cruel
treatment to abscond from the plantation Lancaster, were taken a few
days since, and brought back to the estate, when the manager, whose
inhuman severity had caused them to fly from his government, dealt out
to them his avenging despotism with more than savage brutality. Taking
with him two of his strongest drivers, armed with heavy whips, he led
out these trembling and wretched Africans, early in the morning, to a
remote part of the estate, too distant for the officers to hear their
cries; and, there, tying down first the man, he stood by, and made the
drivers flog him with many hundred lashes, until, on releasing him from
the ground, it was discovered that he was nearly exhausted: in this
state the monster struck-him on the head, with the but end of a large
whip, and felled him again to the earth; when the poor negro, escaping
at once from his slavery and his sufferings, expired at the murderer’s
feet. But not satiated with blood, this savage tyrant next tied down the
naked woman, on the spot, by the dead body of her husband, and with the
whips, already purple with gore, compelled the drivers to inflict a
punishment of several hundred lashes, which had nearly released her also
from a life of toil and torture.
Hearing of these acts of cruelty, on my return from the hospital, and
scarcely believing it possible that they could have been committed, I
went immediately to the sick-house to satisfy myself by ocular
testimony: when, alas! I discovered that all I had heard was too fatally
true; for, shocking to relate, I found the almost murdered woman lying
stark-naked on her belly, upon the dirty boards, without any covering to
the horrid wounds which had been cut by the whips, and with the still
warm and bloody corpse of the man extended at her side, upon the neck of
which was an iron collar, and a long heavy chain, which the now murdered
negro had been made to wear from the time of his return to the estate.
The flesh of the woman was so torn, as to exhibit one extensive sore,
from the loins almost down to her hams; nor had humanity administered
even a drop of oil to soften her wounds: the only relief she knew, was
that of extending her feeble arm in order to beat off the tormenting
flies, with a small green bough, which had been put into her hand for
that purpose by the sympathizing kindness of a fellow slave. A more
horrid and distressful spectacle can scarcely be conceived. The dead
man, and the almost expiring woman had been brought home, from the place
of punishment, and thrown into the negro hospital, amidst the crowd of
sick, with cruel unconcern. Lying on the opposite side of the corpse was
a fellow-sufferer, in a similar condition to the poor woman. His
buttocks, thighs, and part of his back, had been flogged into one large
sore, which was still raw, although he had been punished a fortnight
before.
The following day we witnessed the preparations for the funeral of their
murdered brother, by his fellow slaves. It was conducted in their usual
manner, not with the afflicting solemnity of the Christian rites, but
with all the mirthful ceremonies of African burial, forming a scene of
gaiety, which consisted of music, dancing, singing, and loud noise. They
all seemed to rejoice more in his escape from pain and misery, than to
sorrow for his loss.
The body being put into the coffin, and every thing made ready for
proceeding to the grave, the corpse was taken out of the sick-house into
the yard, and placed very carefully upon the heads of two robust
negroes, who carried it as far as the house, and then, halting under the
window of the manager’s room, they set the coffin upon the ground, and
the whole gang of slaves danced and sang, and played their music around
it, in loud gambols, for nearly two hours; beating at intervals, with
great violence, against the door and window-shutters, and threatening
vengeance upon the murderer of their companion. The manager expecting
that they would break into the house to massacre him, and feeling that
he merited death from their hands, was seized with sad alarm; and,
bursting from his hiding-place, he ran abruptly to the mess-room, to
implore the protection of the officers, looking a ghastly figure of
terror. I could not but remark the effect of his sudden appearance among
us. Not one officer opened his lips in reply to him. The general feeling
seemed to say—“a wretch so cruel can deserve no compassion.” After a
short suspense, the silence, which must have been more severe than the
bitterest words, was broken, by one of the gentlemen referring him to
his feelings, and demanding whether he conceived himself to merit either
pity or protection. His fears had magnified the danger; for although the
slaves were clamorous, we did not notice among them any symptoms which
evinced a disposition forcibly to break into the house. They at length
concluded their dance, then replacing the coffin upon the heads of the
two negroes, and observing much ceremony as to the position of the
corpse, they proceeded towards the place of interment. On leaving the
courtyard, they used the precaution of going round the house, in order
to avoid carrying the body across the manager’s window, not, as you will
suppose, from any sense of delicacy towards him, but from some
superstition regarding the spirit of the dead slave. As they moved on,
two women tapped gently at the sides of the coffin, as if to appease the
corpse, or soften its wrath while passing the murderer’s abode. The
manager felt highly relieved by their departure; but they had not gone
far before the whole party suddenly faced about, and came running back
to the house, the two negroes who were bearing the corpse turning round
and round, with it upon their heads, a number of times in the yard,
while many of the gang beat and kicked against the door, and the
window-shutters of the manager’s room, shouting and crying aloud for
vengeance: upon which one of the book-keepers, an old man who had been
long upon the estate, went out to join in the crowd; and exerting his
influence to appease them, led them away, when they proceeded, dancing,
singing, and beating their music, to the place of burial. After a short
time the gang returned again into the courtyard, having left the remains
of their companion in the peaceful grave. The busy dance was now
resumed, and they hooted and hissed at the manager, and beat loudly at
his door and window, continuing their shoutings and clamour until dark,
when they all retired quietly to their huts.
A few days after the funeral, the attorney of the estate happened to
call at Lancaster to visit the officers, and the conversation naturally
turning upon the late cruelty of the manager, and the consequent injury
derived to the proprietor, we asked him what punishment the laws of the
colony had provided for such horrid and barbarous crimes; expressing our
hope that the manager would suffer the disgrace he so justly merited;
when, to our great surprise, the attorney smiled and treated our remarks
only as the dreams of men unpractised in the ways of slavery. He spake
of the murder with as little feeling as the manager had perpetrated it,
and seemed to be amused at our visionary ideas, of _punishing a white
man_ for his conduct towards slaves! To the question whether the manager
would not be dismissed from the estate, he replied, “_Certainly not_,”
adding that “_if the negro had been treated as he deserved he would have
been flogged to death long before_.” Such was the amount of his sympathy
and concern! The laws of the colony, he said, were intended to prevent
any person from chastising a slave with more than thirty-nine lashes,
for the same offence; but by incurring only a small fine, he could, at
any time, punish a negro with as many hundred lashes as he might wish,
“although the governor and the fiscal” were standing at his elbow.
I was careful to observe the progress of the hideous wounds inflicted
upon the poor woman, and to watch her recovery; and you will be shocked
to know that her sufferings were severely increased, by the inhuman
neglect which succeeded to her punishment. One morning, upon hearing the
loud cries of a female, I was led to look out at my window, when I saw
some negroes carrying this unfortunate woman from the sick-house into
the yard, where they laid her down in the dirt, upon the bare ground,
amidst a heavy shower of rain, then, kneeling at her sides, they
proceeded to examine minutely into her wounds; and you will scarcely
hold it credible, when I tell you that they were employed a full
half-hour _picking maggots out of her sores_!!! The ulcerations had
penetrated to a great depth, particularly with-inside the thighs, where
the lashes of the whips had cut round, and torn the flesh in a frightful
manner. The ulcers were very raw and considerably enlarged, by the
gnawing of the maggots which had been bred within them. I cannot
describe to you the horror I felt at this deplorable sight. I had often
heard of _maggoting_ sheep, but this was the first instance I had met
with of maggoting a human being, and I felt additional distress in
finding the subject of it an unhappy female, whose punishment had been
already severe, and in whom the occasion for such a beastly process
might and ought to have been prevented, if the common dictates of
humanity had been observed. The poor afflicted wretch groaned heavily
under her sufferings, and the operation, which in itself was severely
painful, was rendered so in a still greater degree by the roughness of
her untutored surgeons. During the whole of the time, she was exposed
naked to the rain; also to the eyes of slaves, officers, soldiers, and
all who chanced to pass that way. It was a spectacle, equally offensive
to humanity, and to delicacy!
On representing the diabolical cruelty of this case to the surgeon, he
remarked to us, that the sores, from punishments, did not usually fall
under his inspection, but were left to the care of the _negro doctor_
who had the charge of the sick-house; and that nothing was more common
than to see the wounds filled with maggots. “Indeed,” said he, “it is
often our greatest difficulty, in the practice of surgery in these
climates, to prevent the breeding of insects in the sores.”
I am sorry to remark that the Lancaster plantation has been
distinguished for some time past, on account of the inhuman treatment of
the slaves; in fact, it seemed as if cruelty had become contagious upon
this estate, for we learn, from the most respectable authority, that a
former proprietor was so hardened in his savage conduct that,
frequently, when an unfortunate negro was bound down to the earth, and
groaning under the severe pain of two heavy lashes, he would strike him
a blow upon the head with the butt end of his whip, between each of the
strokes given by the drivers; and that, carrying his barbarity still
further, he would sometimes order the teeth of the slave to be torn out
with a pair of iron pincers, and would himself stand by to see the
torture inflicted.
I can anticipate your sentiments upon reading the history of these
shocking punishments, for they afford lamentable examples of the horrors
and injustice of slavery; and you cannot but think, with me, that the
system which gives to an individual the power of lording his worst
passions, over a fellow-being, uncontrolled, admits of no defence. It is
a violation of nature, in which humanity is outraged, and our species
degraded!