|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 32
I have sometimes heard it asserted that a negro cannot earn his master
the first cost; but nothing can be further from the truth. I suppose
nine tenths of the mechanics throughout the West Indies are negro
slaves; and I well know the coopers among them earn two dollars a day;
the carpenters the same, and oftentimes more; as also the masons,
smiths, and fishermen, &c. and I have known many slaves whose masters
would not take a thousand pounds current for them. But surely this
assertion refutes itself; for, if it be true, why do the planters and
merchants pay such a price for slaves? And, above all, why do those
who make this assertion exclaim the most loudly against the abolition
of the slave trade? So much are men blinded, and to such inconsistent
arguments are they driven by mistaken interest! I grant, indeed, that
slaves are some times, by half-feeding, half-clothing, over-working
and stripes, reduced so low, that they are turned out as unfit for
service, and left to perish in the woods, or expire on a dunghill.
My master was several times offered by different gentlemen one hundred
guineas for me; but he always told them he would not sell me, to my
great joy: and I used to double my diligence and care for fear of
getting into the hands of those men who did not allow a valuable slave
the common support of life. Many of them even used to find fault with
my master for feeding his slaves so well as he did; although I often
went hungry, and an Englishman might think my fare very indifferent;
but he used to tell them he always would do it, because the slaves
thereby looked better and did more work.
While I was thus employed by my master I was often a witness to
cruelties of every kind, which were exercised on my unhappy fellow
slaves. I used frequently to have different cargoes of new negroes in
my care for sale; and it was almost a constant practice with our
clerks, and other whites, to commit violent depredations on the
chastity of the female slaves; and these I was, though with
reluctance, obliged to submit to at all times, being unable to help
them. When we have had some of these slaves on board my master's
vessels to carry them to other islands, or to America, I have known
our mates to commit these acts most shamefully, to the disgrace, not
of Christians only, but of men. I have even known them gratify their
brutal passion with females not ten years old; and these abominations
some of them practised to such scandalous excess, that one of our
captains discharged the mate and others on that account. And yet in
Montserrat I have seen a negro man staked to the ground, and cut most
shockingly, and then his ears cut off bit by bit, because he had been
connected with a white woman who was a common prostitute: as if it
were no crime in the whites to rob an innocent African girl of her
virtue; but most heinous in a black man only to gratify a passion of
nature, where the temptation was offered by one of a different colour,
though the most abandoned woman of her species. Another negro man was
half hanged, and then burnt, for attempting to poison a cruel
overseer. Thus by repeated cruelties are the wretched first urged to
despair, and then murdered, because they still retain so much of human
nature about them as to wish to put an end to their misery, and
retaliate on their tyrants! These overseers are indeed for the most
part persons of the worst character of any denomination of men in the
West Indies. Unfortunately, many humane gentlemen, by not residing on
their estates, are obliged to leave the management of them in the
hands of these human butchers, who cut and mangle the slaves in a
shocking manner on the most trifling occasions, and altogether treat
them in every respect like brutes. They pay no regard to the situation
of pregnant women, nor the least attention to the lodging of the
field negroes. Their huts, which ought to be well covered, and the
place dry where they take their little repose, are often open sheds,
built in damp places; so that, when the poor creatures return tired
from the toils of the field, they contract many disorders, from being
exposed to the damp air in this uncomfortable state, while they are
heated, and their pores are open. This neglect certainly conspires
with many others to cause a decrease in the births as well as in the
lives of the grown negroes. I can quote many instances of gentlemen
who reside on their estates in the West Indies, and then the scene is
quite changed; the negroes are treated with lenity and proper care, by
which their lives are prolonged, and their masters are profited. To
the honour of humanity, I knew several gentlemen who managed their
estates in this manner; and they found that benevolence was their true
interest. And, among many I could mention in several of the islands, I
knew one in Montserrat[R] whose slaves looked remarkably well, and
never needed any fresh supplies of negroes; and there are many other
estates, especially in Barbadoes, which, from such judicious
treatment, need no fresh stock of negroes at any time. I have the
honour of knowing a most worthy and humane gentleman, who is a native
of Barbadoes, and has estates there[S]. This gentleman has written a
treatise on the usage of his own slaves. He allows them two hours for
refreshment at mid-day; and many other indulgencies and comforts,
particularly in their lying; and, besides this, he raises more
provisions on his estate than they can destroy; so that by these
attentions he saves the lives of his negroes, and keeps them healthy,
and as happy as the condition of slavery can admit. I myself, as shall
appear in the sequel, managed an estate, where, by those attentions,
the negroes were uncommonly cheerful and healthy, and did more work by
half than by the common mode of treatment they usually do. For want,
therefore, of such care and attention to the poor negroes, and
otherwise oppressed as they are, it is no wonder that the decrease
should require 20,000 new negroes annually to fill up the vacant
places of the dead.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|