The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus · Chapter 82Part 82
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Probably nothing could demonstrate the meanness of the artifices to which the planters resort to get rid of troublesome magistrates better than the following fact. When the present governor, in making his tour of the island, came into St. Thomas in the East, some of the planters of Manchioneal district hired a negro constable on one of the estates to go to the governor and complain to him that Mr. Chamberlain encouraged the apprentices to be disorderly and idle. The negro went accordingly, but like another Balaam, he prophesied against his employers. He stated to the governor that the apprentices on the estate where he lived were lazy and wouldn't do right, but he declared that it was not Mr. C.'s fault, for that he was not allowed to come on the estate!
Having given such an unfavorable description of the mass of planters, it is but just to add that there are a few honorable exceptions. There are some attorneys and overseers, who if they dared to face the allied powers of oppression, would act a noble part. But they are trammelled by an overpowering public sentiment, and are induced to fall in very much with the prevailing practices. One of this class, an attorney of considerable influence, declined giving us his views in writing, stating that his situation and the state of public sentiment must be his apology. An overseer who was disposed to manifest the most liberal bearing towards his apprentices, and who had directions from the absentee proprietor to that effect, was yet effectually prevented by his attorney, who having several other estates under his charge, was fearful of losing them, if he did not maintain the same severe discipline on all.
The special magistrates are also deeply implicated in causing the difficulties existing under the apprenticeship. They are incessantly exposed to multiplied and powerful temptations. The persecution which they are sure to incur by a faithful discharge of their duties, has already been noticed. It would require men of unusual sternness of principle to face so fierce an array. Instead of being independent of the planters, their situation is in every respect totally the reverse. Instead of having a central office or station-house to hold their courts at, as is the case in Barbadoes, they are required to visit each estate in their districts. They have a circuit from forty to sixty miles to compass every fortnight, or in some cases three times every month. On these tours they are absolutely dependent upon the hospitality of the planters. None but men of the "sterner stuff" could escape, (to use the negro's phrase) being poisoned by massa's turtle soup. The character of the men who are acting as magistrates is thus described by a colonial magistrate of high standing and experience.
"The special magistracy department is filled with the most worthless men, both domestic and imported. It was a necessary qualification of the former to possess no property; hence the most worthless vagabonds on the island were appointed. The latter were worn out officers and dissipated rakes, whom the English government sent off here in order to get rid of them." As a specimen of the latter kind, this gentleman mentioned one (special Justice Light) who died lately from excessive dissipation. He was constantly drunk, and the only way in which to get him to do any business was to take him on to an estate in the evening so that he might sleep off his intoxication, and then the business was brought before him early the next morning, before he had time to get to his cups.
It is well known that many of the special magistrates are totally unprincipled men, monsters of cruelty, lust, and despotism. As a result of natural character in many cases, and of dependence upon planters in many more, the great mass of the special justices are a disgrace to their office, and to the government which commissioned them. Out of sixty, the number of special justices in Jamaica, there are not more than fifteen, or twenty at farthest, who are not the merest tools of the attorneys and overseers. Their servility was graphically hit off by the apprentice. "If busha say flog em, he flog em; if busha say send them to the treadmill, he send em." If an apprentice laughs or sings, and the busha represents it to the magistrate as insolence, he feels it his duty to make an example of the offender!
The following fact will illustrate the injustice of the magistrates. It was stated in writing by a missionary. We conceal all names, in compliance with the request of the writer. "An apprentice belonging to ---- in the ---- was sent to the treadmill by special justice G. He was ordered to go out and count the sheep, as he was able to count higher than some of the field people, although a house servant from his youth--I may say childhood. Instead of bringing in the tally cut upon a piece of board, as usual, he wrote the number eighty upon a piece of paper. When the overseer saw it, he would scarcely believe that any of his people could write, and ordered a piece of coal to be brought and made him write it over again; the next day he turned him into the field, but unable to perform the task (to hoe and weed one hundred coffee roots daily) with those who had been accustomed to field work all their lives, he was tried for neglect of duty, and sentenced to fourteen days on the treadmill!"
We quote the following heart-rending account from the Telegraph, (Spanishtown,) April 28, 1837. It is from a Baptist missionary.
"I see something is doing in England to shorten the apprenticeship system. I pray God it may soon follow its predecessor--slavery, for it is indeed slavery under a less disgusting name. Business lately (December 23) called me to Rodney Hall; and while I was there, a poor old negro was brought in for punishment. I heard the fearful vociferation, 'twenty stripes.' 'Very well; here ----, put this man down.' I felt as I cannot describe; yet I thought, as the supervisor was disposed to be civil, my presence might tend to make the punishment less severe than it usually is--but I was disappointed. I inquired into the crime for which such an old man could be so severely punished, and heard various accounts. I wrote to the magistrate who sentenced him to receive it; and after many days I got the following reply."
"Logan Castle, Jan. 9, 1836.
Sir--In answer to your note of the 4th instant, I beg leave to state, that ---- ----, an apprentice belonging to ---- ----, was brought before me by Mr. ----, his late overseer, charged upon oath with continual neglect of duty and disobedience of orders as cattle-man, and also for stealing milk--was convicted, and sentenced to receive twenty stripes. So far from the punishment of the offender being severe, he was not ordered one half the number of stripes provided for such cases by the abolition act--if he received more than that number, or if those were inflicted with undue severity, I shall feel happy in making every inquiry amongst the authorities at Rodney Hall institution.
I remain, sir, yours, truly,
T.W. JONES, S.M."
'Rev. J. Clarke, &c., &c.'
From Mr. Clarke's reply, we make the following extract:
"Jericho, January 19, 1836.
Sir--I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th instant.
Respecting the punishment of ---- ----, I still adhere to the opinion I before expressed, that, for an old man of about sixty years of age, the punishment was severe. To see a venerable old man tied as if to be broken on the wheel, and cut to the bone by the lash of an athletic driver--writhing and yelling under the most exquisite torture, were certainly circumstances sufficiently strong to touch the heart of any one possessed of the smallest degree of common humanity. The usual preparations being made, the old man quietly stripped off his upper garments, and lay down upon the board--he was then tied by his legs, middle, above the elbows, and at each wrist. Mr. ---- then called out to the driver, 'I hope you will do your duty--he is not sent here for nothing.' At the first lash the skin started up; and at the third, the blood began to flow; ere the driver had given ten, the cat was covered with gore; and he stopped to change it for a dry one, which appeared to me somewhat longer than the first. When the poor tortured creature had received sixteen, his violent struggles enabled him to get one of his hands loose, which he put instantly to his back--the driver stopped to retie him, and then proceeded to give the remaining four. The struggles of the poor old man from the first lash bespoke the most extreme torture; and his cries were to me most distressing. 'Oh! oh! mercy! mercy! mercy! oh! massa! massa! dat enough--enough! oh, enough! O, massa, have pity! O, massa! massa! dat enough--enough! Oh, never do de like again--only pity me--forgive me dis once! oh! pity! mercy! mercy! oh! oh!' were the cries he perpetually uttered. I shall remember them while I live; and would not for ten thousand worlds have been the cause of producing them. It was some minutes after he was loosed ere he could rise to his feet, and as he attempted to rise, he continued calling out, 'My back! oh! my back! my back is broken.' A long time he remained half-doubled, the blood flowing round his body; 'I serve my master,' said the aged sufferer, 'at all times; get no Saturday, no Sunday; yet this is de way dem use me.'
With such planters, and such magistrates to play into their hands, is it to be wondered at that the apprentices do badly? Enough has been said, we think, to satisfy any candid person as to the causes of the evils in Jamaica. If any thing further were needed, we might speak of the peculiar facilities which these men have for perpetrating acts of cruelty and injustice. The major part of the island is exceedingly mountainous, and a large portion of the sugar estates, and most of the coffee plantations, are among the mountains. These estates are scattered over a wide extent of country, and separated by dense forests and mountains, which conceal each plantation from the public view almost as effectually as though it were the only property on the island. The only mode of access to many of the estates in the mountainous districts, is by mule paths winding about, amid fastnesses, precipices, and frightful solitudes. In those lone retirements, on the mountain top, or in the deep glen by the side of the rocky rivers, the traveller occasionally meets with an estate. Strangers but rarely intrude upon those little domains. They are left to the solitary sway of the overseers dwelling amid their "gangs," and undisturbed, save by the weekly visitations of the special magistrates. While the traveller is struck with the facilities for the perpetration of those enormities which must have existed there during slavery; he is painfully impressed also with the numerous opportunities which are still afforded for oppressing the apprentices, particularly where the special magistrates are not honest men.[A]
[Footnote A: From the nature of the case, it must be impossible to know how much actual flogging is perpetrated by the overseers. We might safely conjecture that there must be a vast deal of it that never comes to the light. Such is the decided belief of many of the first men in the island. The planters, say they, flog their apprentices, and then, to prevent their complaining to the magistrate, threaten them with severe punishment, or bribe them to silence by giving them a few shillings. The attorney-general mentioned an instance of the latter policy. A planter got angry with one of his head men, who was a constable, and knocked him down. The man started off to complain to the special magistrate. The master called him back, and told him he need not go to the magistrate--that he was constable, and had a right to fine him himself. "Well, massa," said the negro, "I fine you five shillings on de spot." The master was glad to get off with that--the magistrate would probably have fined him £5 currency.]
In view of the local situation of Jamaica--the violent character of its planters--and the inevitable dependency of the magistrates, it is very manifest that immediate emancipation was imperatively demanded there. In no other colony did the negroes require to be more entirely released from the tyranny of the overseers, or more thoroughly shielded by the power of equal law. This is a principle which must hold good always--that where slavery has been most rigorous and absolute, there emancipation, needs to be most unqualified; and where the sway of the master has been most despotic, cruel, and LONG CONTINUED, there the protection of law should be most SPEEDILY extended and most impartially applied."[B]
[Footnote B: Since the above was written we have seen a copy of a message sent by Sir Lionel Smith, to the house of assembly of Jamaica, on the 3d November, 1837, in which a statement of the deprivations of the apprentices, is officially laid before the house. We make the following extract from it, which contains, to use his Excellency's language, "the principal causes, as has been found by the records of the special magistrates, of complaints among the apprentices; and of consequent collisions between the planters and magistrates."
"Prudent and humane planters have already adopted what is recommended, and their properties present the good working of this system in peace and industry, without their resorting to the authority of the special magistrates; but there are other properties where neither the law of the apprenticeship nor the usages of slavery have been found sufficient to guard the rights of the apprentices.
First, the magistrates' reports show that on some estates the apprentices have been deprived of cooks and water-carriers while at work in the field--thus, the time allowed for breakfast, instead of being a period of rest, is one of continual labor, as they have to seek for fuel and to cook. The depriving them of water-carriers is still more injurious, as the workmen are not allowed to quit their rows to obtain it. Both these privations are detrimental to the planter's work. Second, a law seems wanting to supply the estates' hospitals with sufficient attendants on the sick apprentices, as well as for the supply of proper food, as they cannot depend on their own grounds, whilst unable to leave the hospitals. The first clause of the abolition law has not been found strong enough to secure these necessary attentions to the sick. Third, in regard to jobbers, more exposed to hardships than any other class. A law is greatly required allowing them the distance they may have to walk to their work, at the rate of three miles an hour, and for compelling the parties hiring them to supply them with salt food and meal; their grounds are oftentimes so many miles distant, it is impossible for them to supply themselves. Hence constant complaints and irregularities. Fourth, that mothers of six children and upwards, pregnant women, and the aged of both sexes, would be greatly benefited by a law enforcing the kind treatment which they received in slavery, but which is now considered optional, or is altogether avoided on many properties. Fifth, nothing would tend more to effect general contentment and repress the evils of comparative treatment, than the issue of fish as a right by law. It was an indulgence in slavery seldom denied, but on many properties is now withheld, or given for extra labor instead of wages. Sixth, his Excellency during the last sessions had the honor to address a message to the house for a stronger definition of working time. The clause of the act in aid expressed that it was the intention of the legislature to regulate 'uniformity' of labor, but in practice there is still a great diversity of system. The legal adviser of the crown considers the clause active and binding; the special magistrate cannot, therefore, adjudicate on disputes of labor under the eight hour system, and the consequences have been continual complaints and bickerings between the magistrates and managers, and discontent among the apprentices by comparison of the advantages which one system presents over the other. Seventh, if your honorable house would adopt some equitable fixed principle for the value of apprentices desirous of purchasing their discharge, either by ascertained rates of weekly labor, or by fixed sums according to their trade or occupation, which should not be exceeded, and allowing the deduction of one third from the extreme value for the contingencies of maintenance, clothing, medical aid, risk of life, and health, it would greatly tend to set at rest one cause of constant disappointment. In proportion as the term of apprenticeship draws to a close, THE DEMANDS FOR THE SALE OF SERVICES HAVE GREATLY INCREASED. It is in the hope that the honorable house will be disposed to enforce a more general system of equal treatment, that his Excellency now circumstantially represents what have been the most common causes of complaint among the apprentices, and why the island is subject to the reproach that the negroes, in some respects, are now in a worse condition than they were in slavery."
]
We heard frequent complaints in Jamaica respecting the falling off of the crops since abolition. In order that the reader may know the extent of the failure in the aggregate island crops, we have inserted in the appendix a table showing the "exports for fifty-three years, ending 31st December, 1836, condensed from the journals of the House."
By the disaffected planters, the diminished crops were hailed as "an evident token of perdition." They had foretold that abolition would be the ruin of cultivation, they had maintained that sugar, coffee, rum, &c., could not be produced extensively without the whip of slavery, and now they exultingly point to the short crops and say, "See the results of abolition!" We say exultingly, for a portion of the planters do really seem to rejoice in any indication of ruin. Having staked their reputation as prophets against their credit as colonists and their interests as men, they seem happy in the establishment of the former, even though it be by the sacrifice of the latter. Said an intelligent gentleman in St. Thomas in the East, "The planters have set their hearts upon ruin, and they will be sorely disappointed if it should not come."
Hearing so much said concerning the diminution of the crops, we spared no pains to ascertain the true causes. We satisfied ourselves that the causes were mainly two.
First. The prevailing impression that the negroes would not work well after the abolition of slavery, led many planters to throw a part of their land out of cultivation, in 1834. This is a fact which was published by Lord Sligo, in an official account which he gave shortly before leaving Jamaica, of the working of the apprenticeship. The overseer of Belvidere estate declared that he knew of many cases in which part of the land usually planted in canes was thrown up, owing to the general expectation that much less work would be done after abolition. He also mentioned one attorney who ordered all the estates under his charge to be thrown out of cultivation in 1834, so confident was he that the negroes would not work. The name of this attorney was White. Mr. Gordon, of Williamsfield, stated, that the quantity of land planted in cane, in 1834, was considerably less than the usual amount: on some estates it was less by twenty, and on others by forty acres. Now if such were the fact in the Parish of St. Thomas in the East, where greater confidence was felt probably than in any other parish, we have a clue by which we may conjecture (if indeed we were left to conjecture) to what extent the cultivation was diminished in the island generally. This of itself would satisfactorily account for the falling off in the crops--which at most is not above one third. Nor would this explain the decrease in '34 only, for it is well known among sugar planters that a neglect of planting, either total or partial, for one year, will affect the crops for two or three successive years.
The other cause of short crops has been the diminished amount of time for labor. One fourth of the time now belongs to the laborers, and they often prefer to employ it in cultivating their provision grounds and carrying their produce to market. Thus the estate cultivation is necessarily impeded. This cause operates very extensively, particularly on two classes of estates: those which lie convenient to market places, where the apprentices have strong inducements to cultivate their grounds, and those (more numerous still) which have harsh overseers, to whom the apprentices are averse to hire their time--in which cases they will choose to work for neighboring planters, who are better men. We should not omit to add here, that owing to a singular fact, the falling off of the crops appears greater than it really has been. We learned from the most credible sources that the size of the hogsheads had been considerably enlarged since abolition. Formerly they contained, on an average, eighteen hundred weight, now they vary from a ton to twenty-two hundred! As the crops are estimated by the number of hogsheads, this will make a material difference. There were two reasons for enlarging in the hogsheads,--one was, to lessen the amount of certain port charges in exportation, which were made by the hogshead; the other, and perhaps the principal, was to create some foundation in appearance for the complaint that the crops had failed because of abolition.
While we feel fully warranted in stating these as the chief causes of the diminished crops, we are at the same time disposed to admit that the apprenticeship is in itself exceedingly ill calculated either to encourage or to compel industry. We must confess that we have no special zeal to vindicate this system from its full share of blame; but we are rather inclined to award to it every jot and tittle of the dishonored instrumentality which it has had in working mischief to the colony. However, in all candor, we must say, that we can scarcely check the risings of exultation when we perceive that this party-fangled measure--this offspring of old Slavery in her dying throes, which was expressly designed as a compensation to the proprietor, HAS ACTUALLY DIMINISHED HIS ANNUAL RETURNS BY ONE THIRD! So may it ever be with legislation which is based on iniquity and robbery!
But the subject which excites the deepest interest in Jamaica is the probable consequences of entire emancipation in 1840. The most common opinion among the prognosticators of evil is, that the emancipated negroes will abandon the cultivation of all the staple products, retire to the woods, and live in a state of semi-barbarism; and as a consequence, the splendid sugar and coffee estates must be "thrown up," and the beautiful and fertile island of Jamaica become a waste howling wilderness.
The reasons for this opinion consist in part of naked assumptions, and in part of inferences from supposed facts. The assumed reasons are such as these. The negroes will not cultivate the cane without the whip. How is this known? Simply because they never have, to any great extent, in Jamaica. Such, it has been shown, was the opinion formerly in Barbadoes, but it has been forever exploded there by experiment. Again, the negroes are naturally improvident, and will never have enough foresight to work steadily. What is the evidence of natural improvidence in the negroes? Barely this--their carelessness in a state of slavery. But that furnishes no ground at all for judging of natural character, or of the developments of character under a totally different system. If it testifies any thing, it is only this, that the natural disposition of the negroes is not always proof against the degenerating influences of slavery.[A] Again, the actual wants of the negroes are very few and easily supplied, and they will undoubtedly prefer going into the woods where they can live almost without labor, to toiling in the hot cane fields or climbing the coffee mountains. But they who urge this, lose sight of the fact that the negroes are considerably civilized, and that, like other civilized people, they will seek for more than supply for the necessities of the rudest state of nature. Their wants are already many, even in the degraded condition of slaves; is it probable that they will be satisfied with fewer of the comforts and luxuries of civilized life, when they are elevated to the sphere, and feel the self-respect and dignity of freemen? But let us notice some of the reasons which profess to be founded on fact. They may all be resolved into two, the laziness of negroes, and their tendency to barbarism.
[Footnote A: Probably in more instances than the one recorded in the foregoing chapter, the improvidence of the negroes is inferred from their otherwise unaccountable preference in walking six or ten miles to chapel, rather than to work for a maccaroni a day.]
i. They now refuse to work on Saturdays, even with wages. On this assertion we have several remarks to make.
1.) It is true only to a partial extent. The apprentices on many estates--whether a majority or not it is impossible to say--do work for their masters on Saturdays, when their services are called for.
2.) They often refuse to work on the estates, because they can earn three or four times as much by cultivating their provision grounds and carrying their produce to market. The ordinary day's wages on an estate is a quarter of a dollar, and where the apprentices are conveniently situated to market, they can make from seventy-five cents to a dollar a day with their provisions.
3.) The overseers are often such overbearing and detestable men, that the apprentices doubtless feel it a great relief to be freed from their command on Saturday, after submitting to it compulsorily for five days of the week.
2. Another fact from which the laziness of the negroes is inferred, is their neglecting their provision grounds. It is said that they have fallen off greatly to their attention to their grounds, since the abolition of slavery. This fact does not comport very well with the complaint, that the apprentices cultivate their provision grounds to the neglect of the estates. But both assertions may be true under opposite circumstances. On those estates which are situated near the market, provisions will be cultivated; on those which are remote from the market, provisions will of course be partially neglected, and it will be more profitable to the apprentices to work on the estates at a quarter of a dollar per day, raising only enough provisions for their own use. But we ascertained another circumstance which throws light on this point. The negroes expect, after emancipation, to lose their provision grounds; many expect certainly to be turned off by their masters, and many who have harsh masters, intend to leave, and seek homes on other estates, and all feel a great uncertainty about their situation after 1840; and consequently they can have but little encouragement to vigorous and extended cultivation of their grounds. Besides this, there are very many cases in which the apprentices of one estate cultivate provision grounds on another estate, where the manager is a man in whom they have more confidence than they have in their own "busha." They, of course, in such cases, abandon their former grounds, and consequently are charged with neglecting them through laziness.
3. Another alleged fact is, that actually less work is done now than was done during slavery. The argument founded on this fact is this: there is less work done under the apprenticeship than was done during slavery: therefore no work at all will be done after entire freedom! But the apprenticeship allows one fourth less time for labor than slavery did, and presents no inducement, either compulsory or persuasive, to continued industry. Will it be replied that emancipation will take away all the time from labor, and offer no encouragement but to idleness? How is it now? Do the apprentices work better or worse during their own time when they are paid? Better, unquestionably. What does this prove? That freedom will supply both the time and the inducement to the most vigorous industry.
The other reason for believing that the negroes will abandon estate-labor after entire emancipation, is their strong tendency to barbarism! And what are the facts in proof of this? We know but one.
We heard it said repeatedly that the apprentices were not willing to have their free children educated--that they had pertinaciously declined every offer of the bushas to educate their children, and this, it was alleged, evinced a determination on the part of the negroes to perpetuate ignorance and barbarism among their posterity. We heard from no less than four persons of distinction in St. Thomas in the East, the following curious fact. It was stated each time for the double purpose of proving that the apprentices did not wish to have their children learn to work, and that they were opposed to their receiving education. A company of the first-gentlemen of that parish, consisting of the rector of the parish, the custos, the special magistrate, an attorney, and member of the assembly, etc., had mustered in imposing array, and proceeded to one of the large estates in the Plantain Garden River Valley, and there having called the apprentices together, made the following proposals to them respecting their free children, the rector acting as spokesman. The attorney would provide a teacher for the estate, and would give the children four hours' instruction daily, if the parents would bind them to work four hours every day; the attorney further offered to pay for all medical attendance the children should require. The apprentices, after due deliberation among themselves, unanimously declined this proposition. It was repeatedly urged upon them, and the advantages it promised were held up to them; but they persisted in declining it wholly. This was a great marvel to the planters; and they could not account for it in any other way than by supposing that the apprentices were opposed both to labor and education, and were determined that their free children should grow up in ignorance and indolence! Now the true reason why the apprentices rejected this proposal was, because it came from the planters, in whom they have no confidence. They suspected that some evil scheme was hid under the fair pretence of benevolence; the design of the planters, as they firmly believed, was to get their free children bound to them, so that they might continue to keep them in a species of apprenticeship. This was stated to us, as the real ground of the rejection, by several missionaries, who gave the best evidence that it was so; viz. that at the same time that the apprentices declined the offer, they would send their free children six or eight miles to a school taught by a missionary. We inquired particularly of some of the apprentices, to whom this offer was made, why they did not accept it. They said that they could not trust their masters; the whole design of it was to get them to give up their children, and if they should give them up but for a single month, it would be the same as acknowledging that they (the parents) were not able to take care of them themselves. The busha would then send word to the Governor that the people had given up their children, not being able to support them, and the Governor would have the children bound to the busha, "and then," said they, "we might whistle for our children!" In this manner the apprentices, the parents, reasoned. They professed the greatest anxiety to have their children educated, but they said they could have no confidence in the honest intentions of their busha.