، The time of labour for the slaves, generally, is from sunrising to sunsetting; viz. from five o'clock to seven, one half the year, and from six to six, or thereabout, the other half. They are generally summoned from their slumbers by the cracking of the driver's whip, about half an hour before daylight; which whip, as it is pretty long and heavy, makes the valleys resound and the welkin ring with its alarming sounds, and woe be to the hapless slave who does not lend a willing ear and speedy footsteps to its repeated calls." * If he be absent at roll-call, the judge, juror, and executioner, all stand by him in the shape of an inexorable driver, and, with out any defence or leave of appeal, he is subjected to the lash. Nor willa trifling excuse serve the Black female:" "she makes the best of her way to take her place, her unequal share of the task, by the strongarmed and stout-made man, in the well dressed-up rank of the gang. Should she be too late, her sex and slender form, or gentler nature, will not avail; but, as if devoid of feeling, she is laid down by force, and punished with many stripes on those parts which shall be nameless for me, but which in women, for decency's sake, ought never to be exposed. Surely nature is outraged at such devilish indelicacies." "Out of this time is allowed half an hour for breakfast, and two hours for dinner; but many overseers have the first shell-blow, for dinner, at half past twelve o'clock, and the second at two, to go to the field again, as they are not very particular when they are busy in crop, or wish to have a certain quantity of work done. Independent of this also, in crop-time, the gangs are divided, and one half must work, at night, whilst the other half sleeps; though on some estates, where they have great strength, as they term it, (viz. where the Negroes are more numerous than strict necessity requires for the quantity of land in cultivation,) the whole number is divided into three parts; so that on most sugar estates, the slaves work one half the year three nights in the week, independent of the days, and on the others two nights a week. With respect to the hardness of the labour, it is not greater than (perhaps not so great as) our husbandmen are accustomed to in England; nor do I think it possible for any men to work so hard in a tropical climate as they could in a cold one; but the length of time that they are employed, (viz. eleven or twelve hours, besides the night work,) is more than was intended for man to bear, and must hasten debility and old age. For the poor women it is a great deal too much, as their frail frames cannot stand it many years." pp. 47-50. "I am aware that there is a law in Jamaica, imposing a fine on proprietors or overseers, for compelling the Negroes to do certain kinds of labour on the Sabbath; but it is notorious that this law is altoge ther a dead letter, and that with respect to their grounds, the Negroes not only go of their own accord to work there, as not having sufficient time allowed them otherwise; but if they are found inattentive, it is a custom to send one of the book-keepers, on that holy day, to see that all the slaves are at work, and to watch them a certain time, that there may not be a want of food. "For putting the mill about (viz. for making sugar) on a Sunday, there is a fine of 504, one half of which, I believe, goes to the informer; but though this is done in defiance of law in almost every, if not every, parish in the island, I never heard of an information being laid for that offence, as those planters who do not put their mills about wink at it in others; and no clergyman or other religious person would venture, I think, to inform, as he would be sure to meet with insult, or some worse injury, for his conscientious interference. "A short time before I left Jamaica, I was in St. Thomas in the East, the most religious parish in the island (Kingston perhaps excepted); and on one of the Sundays I was there, several overseers put their mills about, in the afternoon, and the whole, or greater part of the gangs were busy at work: but where the mills are not put about, they work so late, on most estates, on Saturday nights, that the Negroes, and even the Whites belonging to the boilinghouse department, are employed all the forenoon of the Sabbath, potting sugars, &c. so that they are prevented from going to church. "I will record one instance of this, as coming more particularly within my own knowledge: it was on a large estate, in the parish of St. David, belonging to a gentleman who wishes (as I have been informed) to afford his people every facility, that they may attend to religious duties, and encourages them to go to church as often as possible. I had been staying a week with the rector of the parish, and on my return to Kingston, on a Monday morning, called with a friend at Albion, the estate alluded to: it was about breakfast time, and the head book-keeper invited us to breakfast, of which we gladly accepted. We remarked, to rather a fine young Irishman, who had been only a few months in the country, that we had not seen him or any of the others at church yesterday: he replied that he used to attend regularly in his own country, but having been generally engaged of a Sunday morning, since he came upon that property, he had not been able to attend church; and that yesterday, in particular, he was in the boiling house till twelve o'clock, superintending the Negroes whilst they were potting sugars, as the mill had been kept about late on Saturday night. The young man seemed to have a sense of religion, and spoke with regret of his inability to attend a place of worship. On this estate there were six or seven White men, and four or five hundred Negroes, scarcely any of whom attended the parish church, which was only about three miles distant, and the rector of which parish was most anxious to instruct those who would attend." pp. 71-73. "The goodness of the Almighty in ordaining every seventh day a day of rest from labour, was of the greatest consequence to man, even in a temporal point of view, as most of the human race are labourers; for,by ceasing from work on that day, man is cheered and invigorated, and goes to his labour, or business, the following morning with a willing mind, and his sinews full of strength. That Omniscient Eye which looks into futurity, and has weighed the hearts of all men in a balance. foresaw that when men multiplied upon the earth, the powerful would oppress the weak, and that the rich would require perpetual labour from the poor; that this fatigue of the body would weigh down the soul, and destroy or very much diminish the powers of the mind: he therefore, in his own time, commanded the Sabbath to be kept holy, that man, who is in part an immortal creature, might reverence and worship his Creator, learn the nature and value of his being, and with fear and trembling, but in humble reliance, prepare for that never-ending state of eternity for which he was at first destined. By the Israelites, under the covenant of works, the seventh day was very strictly kept, and the Sabbath-breaker was commanded to be stoned to death, by a statute of Levitical Law. The Ten Command first time, in Kingston, in the month of August, 1819: it was on a Sunday, and I had to pass by the Negro market, where several thousands of human beings, of various nations and colours, but principally Negroes, instead of worshipping their Maker on his holy day, were busily employed in all kinds of traffick in the open streets. Here were Jews with shops and standings as at a fair, selling old and new clothes, trinkets, and small wares at cent. per cent. to adorn the Negro person; there were low Frenchmen and Spaniards, and People of Colour, in petty shops and with stalls; some selling their bad rum, gin, tobacco, &c.; others, salt provisions, and small articles of dress; and many of them bartering with the Slave or purchasing his surplus provisions to retail again; poor free people and servants also, from all parts of the city to purchase vegetables, &c. for the following week. The different noises and barbarous tongues recalled to one's memory the confusion of Babel, but the drunkenness of some, with the imprecations and obscenities of others, put one in mind rather of a pandemonium, or residence of devils. Surely the gates or entrances to this city, instead of being entrances which lead to solemn temples, or gates of heaven, as they should be in a Christian country and on a Christian Sabbath, are much more like gates directing to the broad way that leadeth to destruction, that leadeth to hell itself." pp. 64-67. lized and even of savage life, is pro"Marriage, that blessing of civitected in the case of the Slaves by no legal sanction. It cannot be said to exist among them. Those, therefore, who live together as man and wife, are liable to be separated by the caprice of their master, or by sale for the satisfaction of his creditors. ments have lost none of their force under the covenant of grace, or Christian dispensation, and the Sabbath has been kept strictly and religiously, by most Christians, in all ages of the church of Christ; yet in the West-Indian colonies, planted by Christian nations, and particularly in Jamaica, the largest colony of highly-favoured and Christian Britain, the Sabbath is worse kept than by Turks themselves. It is not enough that most of the Slaves "The Slaves in general have little must work in their grounds a part of that or no access to the means of Christian holy day, but, to add to the abomination, a instruction. market must be kept also on the Sunday, for the sale of provisions, vegetables, fruit, &c. It is the only market-day, fellow-countrymen and fellow-Christians, which the poor Negroes and Coloured Slaves have; and, instead of worshipping their God, they are either cultivating their portions of land to preserve life, or trudging like mules with heavy loads, five, ten, or even twenty miles to a market, to sell the little surplus of their provision grounds, or to barter it for a little salt fish to season their poor meals; or, what is much worse, to spend, very often, the value in new destructive rum, which intoxicates them, and drowns for a short time the reflection that they are despised and burthened Slaves. "I shall never forget the horror and disgust which I felt on going on shore, for the "The effect of the want of such instruction, as well as of the absence of any marriage tie, is, that the most unrestrained licentiousness (exhibited in a degrading, disgusting, and depopulating promiscuous intercourse) prevails almost universally among the Slaves; and is encouraged, no less universally, by the debaucheries of their superiors the Whites."-Brief View. "I have resided," says Mr. Bickell, "nearly five years in Jamaica, and have preached two or three sermons almost every Sunday: many other clergymen have also exerted themselves, but to very litttle purpose, as far as the slaves are concerned, as those horrid and legalized scenes are just the same; for this Sunday market is a bait of Satan, to draw away the ignorant Negro his temporal and pressing natural wants are set in opposition to his spiritual ones, and the former prevail to that degree that most of the churches in the island are nearly empty." pp. 67, 68. "The White inhabitants, who were baptized in their childhood or youth, and promised obedience to the Dvine law, have forsaken the covenant made with their God in baptism; have broken and despised his Sabbaths; have built other altars than those of prayer and praise, and compel poor, ignorant Negroes, whom it is their duty to instruct and reform, to do the same. "It is chiefly owing to the institution and due observance of the Sabbath, that true religion and morality are kept alive in the world; and I would lay it down therefore as an axiom, that before the great body of Negro and other Slaves can have any proper ideas of the Christian religion, the Sunday markets must be done away with, the labouring in their grounds on the Sabbath must be forbidden; for to pretend to make them moral and religious, and to cause them to break the Sabbath at the same time, is not only highly offensive to Almighty God, but is grossly insulting to the correct feeling and common sense of a truly Christian people." pp. 68, 69. "In some of the parishes a considerable number of marriages have taken place.". "The same parishes where religion has made the greatest progress, there, also, the greatest number of marriages have been solemnized amongst the slaves. In Kingston and St. Thomas's in the East, in particular, a great number of couples have been married: in the former parish about 2000, (one-third perhaps from Port-Royal, St. David's, and other parishes,) and in the latter 1500, within these last seven or eight years. In Spanish-Town, (or St. Catherine's,) St. Andrew's, and St. David's, a good many have been married also, and a few in some other parishes; but in several others none at all. In the small town of Port-Royal, which is quite separated from the other part of the parish, during the two years and three months that I served it, I married twelve or fourteen couple, free people and slaves; and several more were about to be married when I quitted the parish in April 1823. This is not a great number to be sure, but more than had been married there for twelve years previously to my taking the cure. Two or three of these couples had lived together in a state of concubinage for many (I believe nearly twenty) years; and married, I can confidently say, from religious motives, as did some of the others. In two instances, free men of Colour married Black women; and in one particular case, the man, a very decent mechanic, applied to me for advice, as he said he had lived with the woman many years, and knowing now that it was wicked to live in that way any longer, they wished to be married; but that he had been much laughed and scoffed at by many in the town for his good and virtuous intentions, as the woman was older than himself, and had had a child by some other man before she lived with him. Having ascertained that it was not his intention to desert her, whether they were married or not, I advised him by all means to marry, and not to mind what irreligious and wicked people said. They came to my house to have the ceremony performed; and such was the crowd of low and noisy persons around it, that I was obliged to send for a constable to keep the peace. After the ceremony was performed, the rabble followed, shouting and jeering as if the newly married pair had committed some dreadful crime. I was obliged in two or three instances to have recourse to the constable, on these occasions, when they first began to marry, so rare a thing was it in Port-Royal; but I am happy to say, that before I quitted the parish, I could throw open the doors and allow them to look on, which they did with much propriety and attention." 91-93. pp. "The evils of slavery, great as they have already been shewn to be, would yet be less lamentable than they really are, if they affected the slaves only; but truly distressing to an awakened and well-regulated Christian mind is it to witness the demoralizing effects brought on the White part of the population also, nearly the whole of whom live in a state of open and acknowledged, and even boasted, fornication. It is a well-known and notorious fact, that very few of the White men in the West Indies marry, except a few pro'fessional men, and some few merchants in the towns, and here and there, in the country, a proprietor or large attorney. Most of the merchants and shopkeepers in the towns, and the whole of the deputy planters, (namely, overseers,) in all parts of the country, have what is called a housekeeper, who is their concubine or mistress, and is generally a free woman of Colour; but the book-keepers, who are too poor and too dependent to have any kind of establishment, generally take some Mulatto, or Black female slave, from the estate where they are employed, or live in a more general state of licentiousness. "This is so very common a vice and so far from being accounted scandalous, that it is looked upon by every person as a matter of course; and if a newly-arrived young man happens to have brought a few moral or religious ideas with him from Great Britain, he is soon deprived of them by taunt and ridicule, and is in a short time unblushingly amalgamated into the common mass of hardened and barefaced licentiousness. This does not depreciate the privileged White men even in the eyes of most Creole White ladies; for they often pay visits to the mistress of a relative, and fondle and caress. the little ones: nay, I have known some married ladies pay visits to the kept mistresses of rich men, who were not relatives, though they would not look upon a more respectable woman of the same colour, who might be married to a Brown man. pp. 104, 105. "What a horrible picture is this! In Jamaica alone, there are seven or eight thousand White men; nearly the whole of whom live in this wicked state, in de fiance of the commands of God, and in spite of the examples and precepts inculcated upon their minds in the mother country. p. 106. "This unchristian way of living, this almost total absence of the sacred rite of marriage amongst the Whites, has been productive of that numerous and intermediate race between Whites and Blacks, commonly called People of Colour." p. 111. "The greater part of these live also in a state of fornication: many are condemn ed to do so by their poverty and a total want of employment, for the poor females are brought up to no business, with very few exceptions, nor is there any demand for their services as servants. Except then their parents have left them sufficient to live upon, (which is but seldom the case,) they must prostitute their persons or starve; for such is the contempt with which the men of Colour are treated, (even by the lowest of the White men,) and such is the poverty of many of them, that most of the Brown women prefer being kept by a White man to being the wife of a man of her own colour and rank, though it can scarcely be said that they have any rank at all. Such were the disadvantages that the Brown men laboured under, that till within these last few years, marriage was seldom solemnized between two People of Colour; but of late, and particularly in Kingston, and two or three other parishes where the doctrines of Christianity have been most propagated, a considerable number have been married, and live in an exemplary and respectable manner. Many more would follow these praiseworthy examples, were it not for the White man's gold and fine promises, connected with the idea in the female mind of having a fairer offspring; for such is the disgrace and disadvantage attached to colour, that the greater part of the females take a great pride in seeing their children progressively advancing to the privileged colour and cast. pp. 112, 113. The following anecdote will aptly shew the difficulties with which missionaries have to contend, even on estates where absentee proprietors are most desirous of affording them "I know one instance in the parish of St. Thomas in the East, on an estate belonging to Sir George Rose, where one of the Wesleyans, a very correct and zealous man, had been in the habit of attending; and from what he had taught them, several of the Negroes were in the habit of meeting in the evening, in one of the Negro huts, to offer up a few short prayers, and to instruct each other as well as they could. This however displeased the overseer, and they were ordered not to do it again. They then, I believe, complained to their minister of the hardship of not being allowed to worship their Maker in the inoffensive way he had taught them; and he represented the innocence of the practice, and impossibility of any danger arising to the property: but the overseer, instead of being persuaded, was enraged the more and took an early opportunity of punishing the complainants for some pretended fault, and said tauntingly, (whilst the whip was being applied to their backs, by a stout driver,) You'll go and tell the Methodist parson again, will you? I'll make you tell him for something. And they were pu nished more than usual, for having complained to one whom they considered a friend, and who they thought would be able and willing to protect them from the cruel and cutting lash of the whip, for merely worshipping their God, and innocently perusing his holy word. "When the missonary was informed of the unjust floggings and unfeeling taunts, he remonstrated with the overseer upon his unreasonable conduct; and, remarking that he was allowed and encouraged by the proprietor to instruct the Negroes, further observed, (on finding that he could do no good with the deputy,) that he should represent the matter to the attorney; and in his warmth said, (to the best of my recollection,) if the attorney did not countenance his teaching the slaves in a proper manner, it should be represented to the proprietor Sir G. Rose himself. The cunning and revengeful overseer, however, anticipated him, and went to the attorney with a woeful tale, of the dire intentions of the poor preacher against them both. The consequence was, that he was very nearly being brought into serious trouble; for the attorney represented the case to some of the vestry, and they talked of calling a meeting to take the affair into consideration. It was, however, hushed up (I was informed) by the senior missionary of the connexion going up from Kingston, and making some kind of apology for the humane and worthy, but (as the planters thought) too zealous interference of his fellow-minister." pp. 210, 211. "In none of the colonies of Great Britain have those legal facilities been afforded to the Slave, to purchase his own freedom, which have produced such extensively beneficial effects in the colonial possessions of Spain and Portugal, where the Slaves have been manumitted in large numbers, not only without injury, but with benefit to the master, and with decided advantage to the public peace and safety. On the contrary, in many of our colonies, even the voluntary manumission of Slaves by their masters is obstructed, and in some rendered nearly impossible, by large fines."-Brief View. In the same strain, Mr. Bickell observes, that "The obstructions thrown in the way of emancipation are also a very great evil. It is provided at the same time that every proprietor or owner should give a bond to the proper authorities, in the sum of 100%., for every slave he might emancipate, to be claimed from him or his executors, in case such slave should become chargeable to the parish. I do not mean to say that every slave, made free, is likely to become chargeable; but I am convinced that it has acted as a very great and insurmountable check to the liberal intentions of many owners, and has kept many a slave in bondage, who would otherwise have been enjoying his freedom. To make the best of it, it is but half a boon. "But to other modes of emancipation there are still greater obstacles; for if an industrious Negro, in a favoured situation, saves a little money, the sum demanded for his freedom is, in most instances, so enormous, that it is but seldom effected. In many cases, where free Brown or Black men have been connected with female slaves, they have had a wish to purchase their freedom out of love to the wife, as she is called, or, if she be a mother, perhaps to the child or children also; but so much has been demanded, that they have been obliged to relinquish the generous idea. With one instance of this kind I was well acquainted, as it happened in the city of Kingston. A decent free man, a tradesman, had lived with a Black female slave belonging to a certain White lady, (whose name I shall not now mention,) and much desired to purchase her that he might give her her freedom and marry her. He applied to the mistress, who did not altogether object to selling the young woman, but demanded so great a sum for her, that the poor fellow could not raise so much, even by selling all he had. The CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 279. common price for a good domestic female slave was then, from 1007. to 130. currency; but how much dost thou think, gentle reader, that this virtuous and humane White lady asked for this her female slave, who wished to be freed and married to the man she loved? Why, the small sum of 2001. currency!! at least 70%. more than she was worth; nor could she be prevailed on to sell her for less, although assailed by the prayers of the free lover, and the tears of his enslaved mistress : married, for the man did not like to marry so that she was neither emancipated nor a slave; but she was allowed to live on in the same wicked way; though, had a moderate and equitable sum been demandand her children (now being slaves and ed, she would have been emancipated, bastards) would have been free and legitimate. This is not a solitary case; it often occurs, and in many instances they will not sell a valuable slave on any terms. I became acquainted with a case of this last kind just before I left Jamaica, where a Mulatto slave was not allowed to be sold, though a good price, more than her full value, was offered for her. "There is a much greater liberality in this respect in the Spanish colonies, where emancipation cannot be withheld from slaves on certain sums being offered, and on other certain conditions, there being fixed laws on this head. "But in our colonies there is no inducement held out; for the slave is a complete chattel, a mere machine impelled by the whip, as the master has the power of perpetual possession. However deserving or fortunate the slave may be, in being steady and industrious, and having friends and a little money, it avails nothing; for, if the owner choose, he or she must die in bondage. Indeed, being good and industrious would, in nine cases out of ten, rivet his chains more tightly; for the more he does, the more valuable he is, and therefore the less likely to be parted with. Go to any estate or plantation in the British West Indies, and offer a fair sum for a worthless Negro, he or she would be readily and gladly sold to you. Offer a good price for an ingenious tradesman, a hardworking steady field-Negro, or an inte.. resting young female, and say that you wish to make them free; the owner or manager would reply, No, sir; these are some of my most valuable slaves; I would not part with either of these men for more than his value. And as to that young woman, sir, she will work as well as any man I have got; she is likely also to have a large family. I cannot spare her for any sum!! " pp. 32-37. Mr.Bickell tells us, that, although he has confined his observations to Jamaica, yet that, having visited some of the other colonies, he can safely assert, 2 B |