The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade/Chapter 11
CHAPTER XI.
Slavery in the West Indies, 1750 to 1790.
The natives of Africa, when bought by European colonists, are generally esteemed, says Dr. Jackson, a species of inferior beings, whom the right of purchase gives the owner a power of using at his will. Consistently with this definition, we find the evidence asserting, with one voice, that they "have no legal protection against their masters," and of course, that "their treatment varies according to the disposition of their masters." If their masters be good men, says the Dean of Middleham, they are well off, but if not, they suffer. The general treatment, however, is described to be very severe. Some speak more moderately than others upon it, but all concur in the general usage as being bad. Mr. Woolrich, examined on this point, says that he never knew the best master in the West Indies use his slaves so well as the worst master his servants in England; that their state is inconceivable; that it cannot be described to the full understanding of those who have never seen it, and that a sight of some gangs would convince more than all words. Others, again, make use of the words, "used with great cruelty, — like beasts, or worse;" and the Dean of Middleham, after balancing in his mind all his knowledge upon this subject, cannot say, (setting aside on one hand particular instances of great severity, and on the other hand particular instances of great humanity,) that treatment altogether humane and proper was the lot of such as he had either observed or heard of.
To come to a more particular description of their treatment, it will be proper to divide them into different classes. The first may be said to consist of those who are bought for the plantation use. These are artificers of various descriptions, and the field slaves. The second consists of what maybe termed in-or-out-door slaves. The former are domestics, both in town and country, and the latter, porters, fishermen, boatmen, and the like.
The field-slaves, whose case is the first to be considered, are called out by day-light to their work. For this purpose the shell blows, and they hurry into the field. If they are not there in time, they are flogged. When put to their work, they perform it in rows, and, without exception, under the whip of drivers, a certain number of whom are allotted to each gang. By these means, the weak are made to keep up with the strong. Mr. Fitzmaurice is sorry to Bay, that from this cause many of them are hurried to the grave; as the able, even if placed with the weakly to bring them up, will leave them behind, and then the weakly are generally flogged up by the driver. This, however, is the mode of their labor. As to the time of it, they begin, as before said, at daylight, and continue, with two intermissions, (one for half an hour in the morning, and the other for two hours at noon,) till sun-set.
The above description, however, does not include the whole of their operations for the day, for it is expected that they shall range about and pick grass for the cattle. It is clear, from the different evidences, that the custom of grass-picking varies, as to the time in which it is to be done, on different estates, for on some it is to be done within the intervals of rest said to be allowed at noon, and on others after the labor of the day. It is complained of, however, in either case, as a great grievance, as it lengthens the time of work; as also, because, particularly in droughts, it is very difficult to find grass at all, and because, if they do not bring it in sufficient quantities, they are punished. Grass-picking, says Captain Smith, is one of the most frequent causes of punishment. He has seen some flogged for not getting so great a quantity of it as others, and that at a time when he has thought it impossible they could have gotten half the quantity, having been upon the spot.
It is impossible to pass over in silence the almost total want of indulgence which the women slaves frequently experience during the operations in the field. It is asserted by Dalrymple, that the drivers, in using their whip, never distinguish sex.
The above accounts of the mode and duration of the labor of the field slaves, are confined to that season of the year which is termed "out of crop," or the time in which they are preparing the lands for the crop. In the crop season, however, the labor is of much longer duration. Weakly handed estates, says Mr. Fitzmaarice, which are far the most numerous, form their negroes in crop into two spells, which generally change at twelve at noon, and twelve at night. The boilers and others about the works, relieved at twelve at noon, cut canes from shell blow (half-past one) till dark, when they carry cane-tops or grass to the cattle pens, and then they may rest till twelve at night, when they relieve the spell in the boiling-house, by which they themselves had been relieved at twelve in the day. On all the estates the boiling goes on night and day without intermission; but full-handed estates have three spells, and intermissions accordingly.
Mr. Dalrymple, speaking also of their labor in time of crop, says they are obliged to work as long as they can, which is as long as they can keep awake or stand on their legs. Sometimes they fall asleep, through excess of fatigue, when their arms are caught in the mill and torn off. He saw several who had lost their arms in that way. Mr. Cook states, on the same subject, that in crep time they work in general about eighteen hours out of the twenty-four, and are often hurt through mere fatigue and want of sleep. He knew a girl lose her hand by the mill, while feeding it, for being overcome by sleep, she dropped against the rollers. He has heard of several instances of this kind.
To this account of the labor of the slaves, both in and out of crop, it appears by the evidence they have Sunday and Saturday afternoon out of crop, to themselves, that is, to cultivate their own grounds for their support; on others, Sunday only; and on others, Sunday only in part, for some people, says the Dean of Middleham, required grass for the cattle on Sundays to be gathered twice in the day; and Lieutenant Davison says he has known them forced to work on Sundays for their masters. It appears again, that in crop, on no estates, have they more than Sunday for the cultivation of their lands. The Dean of Middleham has known them continue boiling the sugar till late on Saturday night, and in one instance remembers it to have been protracted till sun-rise on Sunday morning: and the care afterwards of setting up the sugar-jars must have required several hours.
The point which may lie considered next, is that of the slaves' food. This appears by the evidence to be subject to no rule. On some estates they are allowed land, which they cultivate for themselves at the times mentioned above, but they have no provisions allowed them, except perhaps a small present of salt fish or beef, or salt pork, at Christmas. On others they are allowed provisions, but no land: on others again, they are allowed land and provisions jointly. Without enumerating the different rations mentioned to be allowed them by the different witnesses, it may be sufficient to take the highest. The best allowance is evidently at Barbadoes, and the following is the account of it. The slaves in general, says General Tottenham, appeared to be ill-fed; each slave had a pint of grain for twenty-four hours, and sometimes half a rotten herring, when to be had. When the herrings were unfit for the whites, they were bought up by the planters for the slaves. Mr. Davis says that on those estates in Barbadoes, where he has seen the slaves' allowance dealt out, a grown negro had nine pints of corn, and about one pound of salt fish a week, but the grain of the West Indies is much lighter than wheat. He is of opinion that in general they were too sparingly fed. The Dean of Middleham also mentions nine pints per week as the quantity given, but that he has known masters abridge it in the time of crop. This is the greatest allowance mentioned throughout the whole of the evidence, and this is one of the cases in which the slaves had provisions but no land. Where, on the other hand, they have land and no provisions, all the witnesses agree that it is quite ample for their support, but that they have not sufficient time to cultivate it. Their lands, too, are often at the distance of three miles from their houses, and Mr. Giles thinks the slaves were often so fatigued by the labor of the week, as scarcely to be capable of working on them on Sunday for their own use. It is also mentioned as a great hardship, that often when they had cleared these lands, their master has taken them away for canes, giving them new wood-land in their stead, to be cleared afresh. This circumstance, together with the removal of their houses, many of them have so taken to heart as to have died.
Whether or not their food maybe considered as sufficient in general for their support, may be better seen from the following than the preceding account. Mr. Cook says that they have not sufficient food. He has known them to eat the putrid carcasses of animals, and is convinced they did it through want. Mr. J. Terry has known them, on estates where they have been worse fed than on others, eat the putrid carcasses of animals also. Dead mules, horses, and cows, says Mr. Coor, were all burned under the inspection of a white man. Had they been buried, the negroes would have dug them up in the night to eat them through hunger. It was generally said to be done to prevent the negroes from eating them, lest it should breed distempers.
On the subject of their clothing, there is the same variation as to quantity as in their food. It depends on the disposition and circumstances of their masters. The largest allowance in the evidence is that which is mentioned by Dr. Harrison. The men, he says, at Christmas, are allowed two frocks, and two pair of Osnaburgh trowsers, and the women two coats and two shifts apiece. Some also have two handkerchiefs for the head. They have no other clothes than these, except they get them by their own extra labor. Woolrich and Coor agree, that as far as their experience went, the masters did not expend for the clothing of their slaves more than half a crown or three shillings a year; and Cook says that they are in general but very indifferently clothed, and that one-half of them go almost naked in the field.
With respect to their houses and lodging, the accounts of the three following gentlemen will suffice:
Mr. Woolrich states their houses to be small, square huts, built with poles, and thatched at the top and sides with a kind of bamboo, and built by the slaves themselves. He describes them as lying in the middle of these huts before a small fire, but to have no bedding. Some, he says, obtain a board or mat to lie on before the fire. A few of the head-slaves have cabins of boards raised from the floor, but no bedding, except some, who have a coarse blanket. The Rev. Mr. Rees, in describing their houses nearly in the same manner, observes that their furniture consists of stools and benches, that they had no beds or bedding in the houses he was in, but that some of them slept on the ground, and others on a board raised from it. Some of the new slaves, says Dr. Harrison, have a few blankets, but it is not the general practice: for in general they have no bedding at all.
Of the property of the field-slaves, the next article to be considered, the following testimony will give a sufficient illustration:
Many field-slaves, says Mr. Woolrich, have it not in their power to earn any thing, exclusive of their master's work. Some few raise fowls, and some few pigs, and sell them, but their number is very few. Mr. Dalrymple does not say that slaves never become possessed of much property, but he never knew an instance of it, nor can he conceive how they can have time for it. The Dean of Middleham observes, that the quantity of ground allowed to field-slaves for raising provisions does not admit of their frequently possessing any considerable property. It is not likely they can spare much of their produce for sale. Sometimes they possess a pig, and two or three fowls, and if they have also a few plantain trees, these may be the means of supplying them with knives, iron pots, and such other conveniences as their masters do not allow them. The greatest property Mr. M. Terry ever knew a field-slave to possess was two pigs, and a little poultry. A field-slave has not the means ot getting much property. Mr. J. Terry has known the field-slaves so poor as not to be able to have poultry. They were not allowed to keep sheep on any estate he knew. On some they might keep two or three goats, but very few allowed it. Some keep pigs and poultry, if able to buy any.
To this testimony it may be added, that all the witnesses, to whom the question has been proposed, agree in answering, that they never knew or heard of a field slave ever amassing such a sum as enabled him to purchase his own freedom.
With respect to the artificers, such as house-carpenters, coopers, and masons, and the drivers and head-slaves, who form the remaining part of the plantation slaves, they are described as having in general a more certain allowance of provisions, and as being better off.
Having now described the state of the plantation, it will be proper to say a few words on that of the in-and-out-door slaves. The in-door slaves, or domestics, are allowed by all the witnesses to be better clothed and less worked than the others, and invariably to look better. Some, however, complain of their being much pinched for food.
With respect to the out-door slaves, several persons, who have a few slaves, and little work, allow them to work out, and oblige them to bring home three or four bits a day. The situation of these is considered to be very hard, for they are often unable to find work, and to earn the stated sum, and yet, if they fail, they are severely punished. Mr. Clappeson has known them steal grass, and sell it, to make up the sum required.
In this description may be ranked such as follow the occupation of porters. These are allowed to work out, and at the end of the week obliged to bring home to their masters a certain weekly sum. Their situation is much aggravated by having no fixed rates. If, says Foster, on being offered too little for their work they remonstrate, they are often beaten, and receive nothing, and should they refuse the next call from the same person, they are summoned before a magistrate, and punished on the parade for the refusal, and he has known them so punished.
Having now described the labor, food, clothing, houses, property, and different kinds of employment of the plantation, as well as the situation of the in-and-out-door slaves, as far as the evidence will warrant, it may be proper to advert to their punishments; and, first, to those that are inflicted by the cowskin or the whip.
In the towns many people have their slaves flogged upon their own premises, in which case it is performed by a man, who is paid for it, and who goes round the town in quest of the delinquents. But those, says Mr. H. Ross, who do not choose to disturb their neighbors with the slave cries, send them to the wharves or gaol, where they are corrected also by persons paid. At other times they are whipped publicly round the town, and at others tied down, or made „o stand in some public place, and receive it there. When they are flogged on the wharves, to which they go for the convenience of the cranes and weights, they are described by H. Ross, Morley, Jeffreys, Towne, and Captain Scott, to have their arms tied to the hooks of the crane, and weights of fifty-six pounds applied to their feet. In this situation the crane is wound up, so that it lifts them nearly from the ground, and keeps them in a stretched posture, when the whip or cow-skin is used. After this they are again whipped, but with ebony bushes (which are more prickly than the thorn bushes in this country) in order to let out the congealed blood.
Respecting the whippings in gaol and round the town, Dr. Harrison thought them too severe to be inflicted on any of the human species. lie attended a man, who had been flogged in gaol, who was ill in consequence five or six weeks. It was by his master's order for not coming when he was called. He could lay two or three fingers in the wounds made by the whip.
The punishments in the country by means of the whip and cow-skin appear to differ, except in one instance, from those which have been mentioned of the town.
It is usual for those, says Mr. Coor, who do not come into the field in time, to be punished. In this case a few steps before they join the gang they throw down the hoe, clap both hands on their heads, and patiently take ten, fifteen, or twenty lashes.
There is another mode described by Mr. Coor. About eight o'clock, says he, the overseer goes to breakfast, and if he has any criminals at home, he orders a black man to follow him; for it is then usual to take such out of the stocks and flog them before the overseer's house. The method is generally this: The delinquent is stripped and tied on a ladder, his legs on the sides and his arms above his head, and sometimes a rope is tied round his middle. The driver whips him on the bare skin, and if the overseer thinks he does not lay it on hard enough, he sometimes knocks him down with his own hand, or makes him change places with the delinquent, and be severely whipped. Mr. Coor has known many to receive on the ladder, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty lashes, and some two cool hundreds, as they are generally called. He has known many returned to confinement, and in one, two or three days, brought to the ladder, and receive the same complement, or thereabouts, as before. They seldom take them off the ladder, until all the skin, from the hams to the small of the back, appears only raw flesh and blood, and then they wash the parts with salt pickle. This appeared to him from the convulsions it occasioned, more cruel than the whipping, but it was done to prevent mortification. He has known many after such whipping sent to the field under guard and worked all day, with no food but what their friends might give them, out of their own poor pittance. He has known them returned to the stocks at night, and worked next day, successively. This cruel whipping, hard working, and starving has, to his knowledge, made many commit suicide. He remembers fourteen slaves, who, from bad treatment, rebelled on a Sunday, ran into the woods, and all cut their throats together.
The whip, says Woolrich, is generally made of plaited cow-skin, with a thick strong lash. It is so formidable an instrument in the hands of some of the overseers, that by means of it they can take the skin off a horse's back. He has heard them boast of laying the marks of it in a deal board, and he has seen it done. On its application on a slave's back, he lias seen the blood spurt out immediately on the first stroke.
Nearly the same account of its construction is given by other witnesses, and its power and effects are thus described: At every stroke, says Captain Smith, a piece of flesh was drawn out. Dalrymple avers the same thing. It will even bring blood through the clothes, says J. Terry; and such is the effusion of blood on those occasions, adds Fitzmaurice, as to make their frocks, if immediately put on, appear as stiff as buckram; and Coor observes, that at his first going to Jamaica, a sight of a common flogging would put him in a tremble, so that he did not feel right for the rest of the day. It is observed also by Dr. Harrison and the Dean of Middleham, that the incisions are sometimes so deep that you may lay your fingers in the wounds. There are also wheals, says Mr. Coor, from their hams to the small of their backs. These wheals, cuts, or marks, are described by Captain Thompson, Dean of Middleham, Mr. Jeffreys, and General Tottenham, as indelible, as lasting to old age, or as such as no time can erase, and Woolrich has often seen their backs one undistinguished mass of lumps, holes, and furrows.
As farther proofs of the severity of these punishments by the whip or cowskin, the following facts may be adduced. Duncan and Falconbridge have known them so whipped that they could not lie down. He knew also a negro girl die of a mortification of her wounds, two days after the whipping had taken place. A case similar to the last is also mentioned by Mr. Rees. Finding, one day in his walks, a woman lying down and groaning, he understood from her that she had been so severely whipped for running away, that she could hardly move from the place where she was. Her left side, where she had been most whipped, appeared in a mortifying state, and almost covered with worms. He relieved her, as she was hungry, and in a day or two afterwards, going to visit her again, found she was dead and buried. To mention other instances: a planter flogged his driver to death, and even boasted of it to the person from whom Mr. Dalrymple had the account. Captain Hall (of the navy) also knows, by an instance that fell under his eye, that a slave's death may be occasioned by severe punishment. Dr. Jackson thinks, also, severe whippings are sometimes the occasion of their death. He recollects a negro dying under the lash, or soon afterwards; and Captain Ross avers that they often die in a few days after their severe punishments, for having but little food, and little care being taken to keep the sores clean after the whipping, their death is often the consequence.
Having now collected what is said on the punishments by the whip and cowskin, it will be proper to mention those other modes which the evidence presents us. These, however, are not easily subject to a division from the great variety of their kinds.
Captain Cook, speaking of the towns, says he has been shocked to see a girl of sixteen or seventeen, a domestic slave, running in the streets on her ordinary business, with an iron collar, having two hooks projecting several inches, both before and behind. Captain Ross, speaking of the country, has known slaves severely punished, then put into the stocks, a cattle chain of sixty or seventy pounds weight put on them, and a large collar about their necks, and a weight of fifty-six pounds fastened to the chain when they were drove a-field.
Mr. Cook states that, when runaway slaves are brought in, they are generally severely flogged, and sometimes have an iron boot put on one or both legs, and a chain or collar round their necks. The chain is locked, the collar fastened on by a rivet. When the collar is with three projections, it is impossible for them to lie down to sleep; even with two, they must lie uneasily. He has seen collars with four projections. He never knew any injury from the chain and collar, but severely galling their necks. He has, however, known a negro lose his leg from wearing the iron boot.
Mr. Dalrymple, in June, 1189, saw a negress brought to St. George's, Grenada, to have her fingers cut off. She had committed a fault, and ran away to avoid punishment; but being taken, her master suspended her by the hands, flogged and cut her cruelly on the back, breast and thighs, and then left her suspended till her fingers mortified. In this state Mr. Dalrymple saw her at Dr. Gilpin's house.
Captain Ross has seen a negro woman in Jamaica flogged with ebony bushes, (much worse than our own thorn-bushes) so that the skin of her back was taken off, down to her heels. She was then turned round and flogged from her breast down to her waist, and in consequence he saw her afterwards walking upon all fours, and unable to get up.
Captain Cook being on a visit to General Frere, at an estate of his in Barbadoes, and riding one morning with the General and two other officers, they saw, near a house, upon a dunghill, a naked negro, nearly suspended, by strings from his elbows backwards, to the bough of a tree, with his feet barely upon the ground, and an iron weight round his neck, at least, to appearance, of fourteen pounds weight: and thus, without one creature near him, or apparently near the house, was this wretch left exposed to the noon-day sun. Returning a few hours after, they found him still in the same state, and would have released him, but for the advice of General Frere, who had an estate in the neighborhood. The gentlemen, through disgust, shortened their visit, and returned the next morning.
Lieutenant Davison and Mr. Woolrich mention the thumb-screw, and Mr. Woolrich, Captain Ross, Mr. Clappeson, and Dr. Harrison mention the picket as instruments of punishment. A negro man, in Jamaica, says Dr. Harrison, was put on the picket so long as to cause a mortification of his foot and hand, on suspicion of robbing his master, a public officer, of a sum of money, which, it afterwards appeared, the master had taken himself. Yet the master was privy to the punishment, and the slave had no compensation. He was punished by order of the master, who did not then choose to make it known that he himself had made use of the money.
Jeffreys, Captain Ross, M. Terry, and Coor, mention the cutting off of ears, as another species of punishment. The last gentleman gives the following instance in Jamaica: One of the house-girls having broken a plate, or spilt a cup of tea, the doctor (with whom Mr. Coor boarded) nailed her ear to a post. Mr. Coor remonstrated with him in vain. They went to bed, and left her there. In the morning she was gone, having torn the head of the nail through her ear. She was soon brought back, and when Mr. Coor came to breakfast, he found she had been severely whipped by the doctor, who, in his fury, clipped both her ears off close to her head, with a pair of large scissors, and she was sent to pick seeds out of cotton, among three or four more, emaciated by his cruelties, until they were fit for nothing else.
Mr. M. Cook, while in Jamaica, knew a runaway slave brought in, with part of a turkey with him, which he had stolen, and which, Mr. Cook thinks, he had stolen from hunger, as he was nothing but skin and bone. His master immediately made two negroes hold him down, and, with a hammer and a punch, knocked out two of his upper and two of his under teeth.
Mr. Dalrymple was informed by a young woman slave, in Grenada, who had no teeth, that her mistress had, with her own hands, pulled them out, and given her a severe flogging besides, the marks of which she then bore. This relation was confirmed by several town's people of whom he inquired concerning it.
Mr. Jeffreys has seen slaves with one of their hands off, which he understood to have been cut off for lifting it up against a white man. Captain Lloyd also saw at Mrs. Winne's, at Maumee Bay, in Jamaica, a female slave with but one hand only, the other having been cut off for the same offense. Mrs. Winne had endeavored to prevent the amputation, but in vain, for her indented white woman could not be dissuaded from swearing that the slave had struck her, and the hand was accordingly cut off.
Captain Giles, Dr. Jackson, Mr. Fitzmaurice, and Mr. M. Terry, have seen negroes whose legs had been cut off, by their master's orders, for running away, and Mr. Dalrymple gives the following account: A French planter, says he, in the English island of Grenada, sent for a surgeon to cut off the leg of a negro who had run away. On the surgeon's refusing to do it, the planter took an iron bar, and broke the leg in pieces, and then the surgeon cut it off. This planter did many such acts of cruelty, and all with impunity.
Mr. Fitzmaurice mentions, among other instances of cruelty, that of dropping hot lead upon negroes, which he often saw practiced by a planter of the name of Rushie, during his residence in Jamaica.
Mr. Hercules Ross, hearing one day, in Jamaica, from an inclosure, the cries of some poor wretch under torture, he looked through, and saw a young female suspended by the wrists to a tree, swinging to and fro. Her toes could hardly touch the ground, and her body was exceedingly agitated. The sight rather confounded him, as there was no whipping, and the master was just by, seemingly motionless; but, on looking more attentively, he saw in his hand a stick of fire, which he held, so as occasionally to touch her as she swung. He continued this torture with unmoved countenance, until Mr. H. Ross, calling on him to desist, and throwing stones at him over the fence, stopped it. Mr. Fitzmaurice once found Rushie, the Jamaica planter before mentioned, in the act of hanging a negro. Mr. Fitzmaurice begged leave to intercede, as he was doing an action that in a few minutes he would repent of. Rushie, upon this, being a passionate man, ordered him off his estate. Mr. Fitzmaurice accordingly went, but returned early the next morning, before Rushie was up, and going into the curing-house, beheld the same negro lying dead upon a board. It was notorious that Rushie had killed many of his negroes, and destroyed them so fast that he was obliged to sell his estate. Captain Ross says also, that there was a certain planter in the same island, who had hanged a negro on a post, close to his house, and in three years destroyed forty negroes out of sixty by severity. The rest of the conduct of this planter, as described by Captain Ross, was, after a debate, canceled by the committee of the House of Commons who took the evidence, as containing circumstances too horrible to be given to the world. On Shrewsbury estate, in Jamaica, says Mr. Coor, the overseer sent for a slave, and in talking with him, he hastily struck him on the head with a small hanger, and gave him two stabs about the waist. The slave said, "Overseer, you have killed me." He pushed him out of the piazza, The slave went home and died that night. He was buried and no more said about it. A manager of an estate, says Mr. Woolrich, in Tortola, whose owner did not reside on the island, sitting at dinner, in a sudden resentment at his cook, went directly to his sword, and ran the negro woman through the body, and she died upon the floor immediately, and the negroes were called in to take her away and bury her.
Mr. Giles recollects several shocking instances of punishment. In particular on the estate where he lived, in Montserrat, the driver at day-break once informed the overseer that one of four or five negroes, chained in the dungeon, would not rise. He accompanied the overseer to the dungeon, who set the others that were in the chain to drag him out, and not rising when out, he ordered a bundle of cane-trash to be put round him and set fire to. As he still did not rise, he had a small soldering iron heated and thrust between his teeth. As the man did not yet rise, he had the chain taken off and sent him to the hospital, where he languished some days and died.
An overseer on the estate where Mr. J. Terry was, in Grenada, (Mr. Coghlan,) threw a slave into the boiling cane-juice, who died in four days. Mr. J. Terry was told of this by the owner's son, by the carpenter, and by many slaves on the estate. He has heard it often.
Mr. Woolrich says a negro ran away from a planter in Tortola, with whom he was well acquainted. The overseer having ordered to take him, dead or alive, a while after found him in one of his huts, fast asleep, in the day time, and shot him through the body. The negro jumping up, said, "What, you kill me asleep?" and dropped dead immediately. The overseer took off his head and carried it to the owner. Mr. Woolrich knew another instance in the same island. A planter, offended with his waiting man, a mulatto, stepped suddenly to his gun, on which the man ran off, but his master shot him through the head with a single ball. From the above accounts, there are no less than sixteen sorts of extraordinary punishments, which the imagination has Invented in the moments of passion and caprice. It is much to be lamented that there are others in the evidence not yet mentioned. But as it is necessary to insert a new head, nnder which will be explained the concern which the very women take, both in the ordinary and extraordinary punishments of the slaves, and as some of the latter, not yet mentioned, are inseparably connected with it, it was thought proper to cite them under this new division rather than continue them under the old. It will appear extraordinary to the reader, that many women, living in the colonies, should not only order, and often superintend, but sometimes actually inflict, with their own hands, some severe punishments upon their slaves, and that these should not always be women of a low order, but often of respectability and rank.
Lieutenant Davison, Captain Smith and Dr. Jackson, all agree that it was common for ladies of respectability and rank to superintend the punishments of their slaves. Conformably with this, we find Dr. Harrison stating to the committee, that a negro, in Jamaica, was flogged to death by her mistress's order, who stood by to see the punishment. Lieutenant Davison also states, that in the same island he has seen several negro girls at work with the needle, in the presence of their mistresses, with a thumb-screw on their left thumbs, and he has seen the blood gush out from the ends of them. He has also seen a negro girl made to kneel with her bare knees on pebbles, and to w r ork there at the same time; a sort of punishment, he says, among the domestics, which he knows to be in common use.
On the subject of women becoming the executioners of their own fury, Dr. Jackson observes, that the first thing that shocked him in Jamaica was a Creole lady of some consequence, superintending the punishment of her slaves, male and female, ordering the number of lashes, and, with her own hands, flogging the negro driver if he did not punish properly.
Capt. Cook relates that two young ladies of fortune, in Barbadoes, sisters, one of whom was displeased at a female slave belonging to the other, proceeded to some very derogatory acts of cruelty. With their own garters they tied the young woman neck and heels, and then beat her almost to death with the heels of their shoes. One of her eyes continued a long while afterwards iu danger of being lost. They, after this, continued to use her ill, confining and degrading her. Capt. Cook came in during the beating, and was an eye witness to it himself.
Lieutenant Davison states, in his evidence, that the clergyman's wife at Port Royal, was remarkably cruel. She used to drop hot sealing wax on her negroes, after flogging them. He was sent for as surgeon to one of them, whose breast was terribly burnt with sealing wax. He lived next door, he states, also, to a washer-woman at Port Royal, who was almost continually flogging her negroes. He has often gone in and remonstrated against her cruelty, when he has seen the negro women chained to the washing-tubs, almost naked, with their thighs and backs in a gore of blood, from flogging. He could mention various other capricious puuishments, if necessary.
Mr. Forster, examined on the same subject, says he has known a creole woman, in Antigua, drop hot sealing wax on a girl's back, after a flogging. He and many others saw a young woman of fortune and character flogging a negro man very severely with her own hands. Many similar instances he could relate if necessary. They are almost innumerable among the domestic slaves.
If it should be asked for what' offenses the different punishments now cited have taken place, the following answer may be given: The slaves appear to have been punished, as far as can be ascertained from the evidence under the head of ordina; T punishments, for not coming into the field in time, not picking a sufficient quantity of grass, not appearing willing to work, when in fact sick and not able, for staying too long on an errand, for not coming immediately when called, for not bringing home (the women) the full weekly sum enjoined by their owners, for running away, and for theft, to which they were often driven by hunger. Under the head of "extraordinary punishments," some appear to have suffered for running away, or for lifting up a hand against a white man, or for breaking a plate, or spilling a cup of tea, or to extort confession. Others, again, in the moments of sudden resentment, and one on a diabolical pretext, which the master held out to the world to conceal his own villainy, and which he knew to be false.
On the subject of capital offenses and punishments, a man and a woman slave are mentioned to have been hanged, the man for running away, and the woman for having secreted him. The Dean of Middleham saw two instances of slaves being gibbetted alive in chains, but he does not say for what, only that this is the punishment for enormous crimes: and Mr. Jeffreys, the only other person who speaks on this subject, says that he was in one of the islands, when some of the slaves murdered a white man, and destroyed some property on the estate. The execution of these he describes as follows:
He was present, he says, at the execution of seven negroes in Tobago, in the year 1774, whose right arms were chopped off: they were then dragged to seven stakes, and a fire, consisting of trash and dry wood, was lighted about them. They were there burnt to death. He does not remember hearing one of them murmur, complain, cry, or do any thing that indicated fear. One of them, in particular, named Chubb, was taken in the woods that morning, was tried about noon, and was thus executed with the rest in the evening. Mr. Jeffreys stood close by Chubb when his arm was cut off. He stretched his arm out, and laid it upon the block, pulled up the sleeve of his shirt with more coolness than he (Mr. Jeffreys) should have done, were he to have been bled. Ho afterwards would not suffer himself to be dragged to the stake, as the others had been, but got upon his feet and walked to it. As he was going to the stake, he turned about, and addressed himself to Mr. Jeffreys, who was standing within two or three yards of him, and said, "Buckra, you see me now, but to-morrow I shall be like that," kicking up the dust with his foot. (Here Mr. Jeffreys solemnly added, in his evidence, the words "So help me God.") The impression this made upon his mind, Mr. Jeffreys declared, no time could ever erase. Sampson, who made the eighth, and a negro, whose name Mr. Jeffreys does not recollect, were present at this execution. Sampson, next morning, was hung in chains alive, and there he hung till he was dead, which, to the best of his recollection, was seven days. The other negro was sentenced to be sent to the mines in South America, and, he believes, was sent accordingly. Neither of those two, during the time of the execution, showed any marks of concern, or dismay, that he could observe. A stronger instance of human fortitude, he declared, he never saw.
Having now stated the substance of the evidence on the subject of offenses and punishments, we come to a custom which appears to have been too general to be passed over in silence.
Dalrymple, Forester, Captain Smith, Captain Wilson, and General Tottenham, assert that it is no uncommon thing for persons to neglect and turn off their slaves when past labor. They are turned off, say Captain Wilson, Lieutenant Davison, and General Tottenham, to plunder, beg, or starve. Captain Cook has known some to take care of them; but says others leave them to starve and die. They are often desired, when old, says Mr. Fitzmaurice, to provide for themselves, and they suffer much. Mr. Clappeson knew a man who had an old, decrepit woman slave, to whom he would allow nothing. When past labor, the owner did not feed them, says Giles; and Cook states that, within his experience, they had no food except what they could get from such relations as they might have had. General Tottenham has often met them, and, once in particular, an old woman, past labor, who told him that her master had set her adrift to shift for herself. lie saw her about three days afterwards, lying dead in the same place. The custom of turning them off when old and helpless is called in the islands "Giving them free."
As a proof of how little the life of an old slave was regarded in the West Indies, we may make the following extract from the evidence of Mr. Coor. Once, when he was dining with an overseer, an old woman who had run away a few days, was brought home, with her hands tied behind. After dinner, the overseer, with the clerk, named Bakewell, took the woman, thus tied, to the hot-house, a place for the sick, and where the stocks are in one of the rooms. Mr. Coor went to work in the mill, about one hundred yards off, and hearing a most distressful cry from that house, he asked his men what it was. They said they thought it was old Quasheba. About five o'clock the noise ceased, and about the time he was leaving work, Bakewell came to him, apparently in great spirits, and said, "Well, Mr. Coor, Old Quasheba is dead. We took her to the stocks-room; the overseer threw a rope over the beam; I was Jack Ketch, and hauled her up till her feet were off the ground. The overseer locked the door, and took the key with him, till my return just now, with a slave for the stocks, when I found her dead." Mr. Coor said, "You have killed her; I heard her cry all the afternoon." He answered, "She was good for nothing; what signifies killing such an old woman as her?" Mr. Coor said, "Bakewell, you shock me," and left him. The next morning his men told him they had helped to bury her.
But it appears that the aged are not the only persons whose fate is to be commiserated, when they became of no value; for people in youth, if disabled, were abandoned to equal misery. General Tottenham, about three weeks before the hurricane, saw a youth, about nineteen, walking in the streets, in a most deplorable situation, entirely naked, and with an iron collar about his neck, with five long projecting spikes. His body, before and behind, was almost cut to pieces, and with running sores all over it, and you might put your finger in some of the wheals. He could not sit down, owing to his being in a state of mortification, and it was impossible for him to lie down, from the projection of the prongs. The boy came to the general and asked relief. He was shocked at his appearance, and asked him what he had done to suffer such a punishment, and who inflicted it. He said it was his master, who lived about two miles from town, and that as he could not work, he would give him nothing to eat.
If it be possible to view human depravity in a worse light than it has already appeared in on the subject of the treatment of the slaves when disabled from labor, it may be done by referring to the evidence of Captain Lloyd, who was told by a person of veracity, when in the West Indies, but whom he did not wish to name in his evidence, that it was the practice of a certain planter to frame pretenses for the execution of his old worn out slaves, in order to get the island allowance. And it was supposed that he dealt largely in that way.
Having now cited both the ordinary and extraordinary punishments inflicted upon the slaves, it may be presumed that some one will ask here, whether, under these various acts of cruelty, they were wholly without redress? To this the following answer may be given: That, with respect to the ordinary punishments by the whip and cowskin, (where they did not terminate in death,) the power of the master or overseer was under little or no control.
As to such of the extraordinary punishments before mentioned as did not terminate in death, such as picketing, dropping hot sealing-wax on the flesh, cutting off ears, and the like, it appears that slaves had no redress whatever, for that these actions also on the part of the masters were not deemed within the reach of the law. In the instance cited of the doctor clipping off the ears of a female slave, no more notice was taken of it, says Coor, than if a dog's ears had been cut off, though it must have been known to the magistrates. In the dreadful instance also cited of a planter's breaking his slave's leg by an iron bar, to induce the surgeon to cut it off, as a punishment, Mr. Dalrymple observes that it was not the public opinion that any punishment was due to him on that account, for though it was generally known, he was equally well received in society afterwards as before; and in the case also mentioned of the owner torturing his female slave by the application of a lighted torch to her body, Mr. H. Ross states, only that this owner was not a man of character; with respect to his suffering by the law, he observes that he was never brought to any trial for it; and he did not know that the law then extended to the punishment of whites for such acts as these. 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.