With respect to such of tbe punishments as have terminated in death, the reader will be able to collect what power the masters and overseers, and what protection the slaves have had by law, from the following accounts:
There are no less than seven specific instances mentioned in the evidence, in which slaves died in consequence of the whipping they received, and yet in no one of them was the murderer brought to account. One of the perpetrators is mentioned by Mr. Dalrymple as having boasted of what he had done; and Dr. Jackson speaks of the other in these words: "No attempts, says he, were made to bring him to justice: people said it was an unfortunate thing, and were surprised that he was not more cautious, as it was not the first thing of the kind that had happened to him, but they dwelt chiefly on the proprietor's loss."
In such of the extraordinary punishments as terminated in death, there are no less than seven specific instances also in the evidence. In one of them, viz: that of throwing the slave into the boiling cane-juice, we find from Mr. J. Terry that the overseer was punished, but his punishment consisted only of replacing the slave and leaving his owner's service. In that of killing the slave by lighting a fire round him and putting a hot soldering iron into his mouth, the overseer's conduct, says Mr. Giles, was not even condemned by his master, nor in any of the rest were any means whatsoever used to punish the offenders. In the three mentioned by Mr. Woolrich, he particularly says, all the white people in the island were acquainted with these acts. Neither of the offenders, however, were called to an account, nor were they shunned in society for it, or considered as in disgrace.
Such appears to have been, in the experience of the different witnesses cited, the forlorn and wretched situation of the slaves. They often complain, says Dr. Jackson, that they are an oppressed people; that they suffer in this world, but expect happiness in the next; whilst they denounce the vengeance of God on their oppressors, the white men. If you speak to them of future punishments, they say, "Why should a poor negro be punished? he does no wrong; fiery caldrons, and such things, are reserved for white people, as punishments for the oppression of slaves."
Bryan Edwards, the historian of the West Indies, gives the price of new negroes in 1191. An able man, in his prime, £50 sterling; an able woman, £49 sterling; a youth approaching to manhood, £41 sterling; a young girl, £40 sterling; boys and girls, from £40 to £45 sterling; an infant, £5. The annual profit arising to the owner, from each able field negro, employed in cultivating sugar, he estimates at £25 sterling. An opinion prevailed among the planters that it was cheaper to buy than to breed. If a negro lasted a certain time his death was accounted nothing. This time was fixed at seven years by some planters; by others at less. A planter of Jamaica, by name of Yeman, according to Captain Scott's testimony, reduced his calculation to four years, treating his slaves most cruelly, and saying that four years' labor was enough for him, for he then had got his money out of him, and he did not care what became of him afterwards.
