Mountainous: varied and An extensive flat—one continued
picturesque: rich valleys, field, richly spread with cotton,
rivulets, green fields: plantations intersected with great numbers of
of sugar, coffee and cassada. wet ditches.
Roads hilly and rough, hard and Roads of the common soil, or clay:
almost always dry—some paved with in the dry season flat and smooth:
stone. in the wet season deep in mud, and
almost impassable.
Bold rocks, and romantic shores The sea at high water above the
bordering the sea. level of the land—kept from
overflowing the country by
artificial banks of mud or clay.
The principal town large, regularly Scarcely any towns yet formed. The
built, and, in form, like those of capital of each colony in its
Europe: streets long and narrow, infancy. Streets not paved: houses
and well paved: houses built of built of wood, and covered with
stone, and covered with tiles. Many wood. No villages.
small villages.
A playhouse; coffeehouses, and None.
taverns; tables d’hotes; public
promenades; public baths;
card-clubs.
Rich stores; well-furnished shops; No regular shops: a few public
trades and the various kinds of stores: division of labour but
employment branching out into little introduced.
numerous divisions, as in Europe.
Crowded population. People gay and Population thin. People sedate and
volatile: proportion of females reserved. Males more numerous than
greater than of males. females.
Various churches, and religious No place of worship, nor any signs
establishments, with great parade of an established religion.
of public worship.
Vegetables, fruits, flowers, No public cries of any kind in the
jellies, soups, liqueurs, &c., streets.
publicly cried about the streets.
A freedom of intercourse, and a Extreme distance observed between
degree of familiarity between the the whites, and all the various
whites and the people of colour. shades of Africans, and their
descendants.
Innumerable shades, or degrees Gradation very abrupt, a wide
between the whites and the blacks. chasm, with only few shades,
between the Europeans and the
Africans.
Slaves decently clothed: the Male slaves often naked: females
females sometimes in shoes. dressed only in a short coarse
petticoat.
The loud clang of the whip but The ear almost daily tortured with
seldom heard. the sound of the whip, and the
cries of the sufferers.
Mules employed to do the heavy work All the labour performed by slaves.
of the estates.
Amidst the many slight shades, and The sombre veil of slavery every
the mirth and gaiety of crowded where manifest.
numbers, the dark cloud of bondage
scarcely perceptible.
We find that the French are more in the habit of conversing, as
companions, with the slaves, than is common among the English and the
Dutch; and that the females, employed in the house, are treated more in
the manner of the filles de chambre of Europe. From this circumstance,
together with the slight gradations of shade, or the many links forming
the chain between the Europeans and the Africans, and from the great
number of people of colour, who have obtained their freedom, it is
extremely difficult to ascertain where the line of slavery commences.
But while the eye and the feelings are less offended by the degrading
distinctions of bondage, it is observable that with respect to kicking,
cuffing, and scolding, the French are not more tender towards their
human property than the owners in other colonies. It is even probable
that the less frequent sound of the whip proceeds, in a great degree,
from a cause not exclusively founded in humanity.
In words, the French degrade the people of colour into mere brutes, the
terms negro and bête being commonly used as synonymous. Amidst the noise
of a crowded town, the distressful lash is not so easily heard: nor is
it common, at St. Pierre, to inflict the punishment in the same exposed
manner as at Stabroek and New Amsterdam; it being a regulation of the
police, that any one, wishing to have his slave punished, shall send him
to the public bourreau (or executioner) at the house of correction,
accompanied with a written charge or deposition against him, and a
certain fee. By this arrangement the chastisement is better proportioned
to the offence than it might be under the immediate inspection of the
enraged master, and is, at the same time, stamped with an air of public
justice.
Although it would be difficult, or impossible, from either face or
manner, to distinguish many of the people of colour from the creole
whites, still, however nearly they may approach in hue, or in conduct,
it would be regarded as an irretrievable disgrace to intermarry with any
of the race, however distantly descended from the Africans. If, by the
minutest scrutiny of pedigree, only the slightest trace of negro blood
can be discovered in their veins, it forms an indelible stain, and
establishes an impenetrable barrier against such an union.
In Martinique, the descendants of the Africans sometimes observe the
regular forms of matrimony among themselves; but the whitest and best
educated of their females prefer living as chères amies, with Europeans,
or white creoles, rather than marry with any of the other classes; all
of whom they regard as infinitely inferior.
The great distinction, between the whites, and the people of colour, is
scrupulously observed, also, at public places; for, although in manner,
dress, and person, those of the two classes may be strictly equal,
still, where the fatal taint of African blood can be traced, the
presence of such persons would not be tolerated: they would not be
permitted to sit among, or to associate with genuine _backras_—“les
véritables blancs.”
At the house, where I am now an inmate, the family consists of females
of five or six different shades of skin; and we see, almost daily,
little Miss, the fair daughter of the mestee hostess, tripping along to
church, with her darker slave at her heels, carrying the parasol to
protect her from the sun, and a small stool for her to pray upon; yet,
notwithstanding her being thus attended upon the streets, or to a place
of worship, if this young lady were to presume to appear in the pit or
boxes of the playhouse, she would be instantly taught, that the gallery
was the fit place for persons of African descent.
From these circumstances it will be seen, that the separation formed by
colour is of immense magnitude with respect to the general practice of
slavery. Its influence is beyond all calculation: construed into a sign
of physical inferiority, it describes, at once, the line of demarcation;
and fixes the stigma of bondage in a more precise and forcible manner
than could have been effected by the most rigorous law of human
invention. Nature has legibly drawn the distinctive line. The taint is
marked in the countenance; it exists in the blood—is incurable, and
descends to the remotest posterity. It is extremely doubtful whether the
system which is pursued in the West Indies, could have been continued to
the present day—whether the moral laws of our nature could have been,
thus long, held at defiance, if the slave-owners had not raised about
them an impregnable barrier, by seizing upon this most important
physical distinction.
My pen being now upon the subject of slavery, I may relate an occurrence
which happened only the day before we sailed from Demarara; and which, I
am sorry to remark, stands too prominent in confirmation of the reputed
cruelty practised by some of the Dutch colonists towards their negroes.
I took my farewell dinner with a party at the commandant’s; and, in the
evening, after I had retired, but while the other gentlemen remained at
table, they were disturbed by the groans of some person, who seemed to
be in extreme agony. Prompted by feelings of humanity, Colonel Hislop
sent one of the officers to the house, from whence the afflicting cries
were thought to proceed, in order to ascertain if any person were ill,
or if it might be in his power to afford relief; when, to the
astonishment of all who were present, a scene of the most shocking
cruelty was discovered. Instead of meeting with any one in sickness, the
gentleman deputed upon this commission found a wretched slave suffering
under a species of torture which could only have been invented by the
most diabolical malignity.
The unfortunate man was tied down to the ground, with his limbs
stretched out to the utmost extent; the legs being fastened with heavy
chains, and the hands with strong cords, which were painfully tightened
by being twisted with pieces of wood, placed across the wrists. For the
honor of human nature, I hope it is a solitary, although an absolute
fact, that this poor negro had been so confined, without being allowed a
morsel of food, for three days; and with the additional cruelty of being
burnt across the fleshy parts of his person at repeated intervals, with
red-hot iron. Could such a mode of torture have suggested itself to any
other mind than that of a blacksmith? which was the occupation followed
by the depraved monster, into whose fiery hands it was the lot of this
unfortunate African to have fallen!
The dreadful tale being reported to the commandant, a file of the guard
was instantly marched to the house, with orders to release the sufferer;
and quickly, with the irons and cords remaining upon his limbs, he was
led before the colonel and party, whose timely humanity had saved his
life. His fetters were now removed; food and wine were offered to him;
and he was soothed with the assurance that justice should be done to his
cause: but his strength was so exhausted as scarcely to admit of
restoration! Upon swallowing a morsel of bread, moistened with wine and
water, the effect upon his famished stomach was so painful as to produce
extreme distress, and he nearly fainted: but, after a little time, he
was so much recovered by the kind attentions of the commandant and his
friends, as to be sensible of the anxieties of those about him; and,
when questioned regarding the crime which had provoked this horrid
punishment, it proved that he was utterly ignorant for what fault, or
upon what pretence, he had been treated with such savage barbarity!
The hardened wretch, his master, was examined as to the nature of the
offence which had urged him to this frightful example of cruelty.
Whether his consciousness of the insignificance of the alleged
misdemeanor, or the dread of the requital he merited, prevented him from
avowing it, I could not learn, but he persisted in the most obstinate
silence respecting it, and replied only by confused and hurried appeals,
piteously imploring the commandant to pardon him, and beseeching that he
might not be subjected to the ignominy of a personal punishment. His
agitation was excessive: forgetful how grievously he had debased himself
by his outrageous conduct, the apprehension of being exposed to the
degradation of a corporal chastisement so entirely possessed his mind,
that no direct answer could be obtained from him; every reply being an
humble petition for mercy, or an anxious supplication not to be
stigmatized with the disgraceful retribution, which he seemed conscious
that he deserved.
It was the general opinion that he had been instigated to this act of
deliberate cruelty by some trivial fault, which he was ashamed to
acknowledge as the cause of such direful malice; but, as I left the
colony the following morning, I had no opportunity of ascertaining
whether he was afterwards brought to confess what was the real or
pretended offence, which the savage had deemed it fit to avenge with
such horrid inhumanity.