SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN BARBADOS 821 proudly arrogated a superiority above the negroes of the other islands. The poor whites lived in cottages remote from the great class of merchants and planters, obtaining a scanty livelihood by cultivating a small patch of earth and breeding up poultry or what they termed stock for the markets. By misfortune or misconduct they were reduced to a state far removed from independence, often indeed but little superior to the condition of free negroes. Yet even these believed that in the scale of creation there could be no other country, kingdom or empire equal to their transcendent island, their own Barbados; whence the adage: "What would poor old England do, were Barbados to forsake her?" Dr Pinckard also emphasised that the people of Barbados were much too addicted to the pleasures of the table. "In eating they might put to the blush even the turtle countenances of our London fat citizens."2 He further noted the inefficiency of slave labour. A gang of negroes employed in making a road to the governor's house afforded a striking example of the indolence due to climate and slavery. A mulatto overseer attended them who had every appearance of being as much a stranger to industry as the negroes, who seemed not to be apprehensive of the driver or his whip except when he made it fall across them in stripes. "In proportion to the work done by English labourers and the price usually paid for it the labour of these slaves could not be calculated at so much as twopence per day, for almost any two men in England would, with the greatest ease, do as much work in a given time as was performed by a dozen of these indolent meagre-looking beings." Dr Pinckard saw, on one occasion, four women, almost naked, working in a canefield; a stout robust-looking man, apparently white, was following them holding a whip at their backs. Asked why he did not join in the task, the reply was, that it was not his business, that he had only to keep the women at work and make them feel the weight of the whip if they grew idle or relaxed from their labour. Equally revolting was the Barbadian law under which, if an infant was born in slavery, a mother, should she obtain her own freedom, could not claim her child, but had to leave it, still the disposable property of her mistress, equally liable to be sold as any other piece of furniture in the house. "Thus", our author concludes, "are the natural ties of our species torn asunder, and the dearest attachments and purest affections of the heart cruelly broken down! Babes are separated from their parents and mothers robbed of their children by this unnatural appropriation of human substance!"4 A noteworthy event was a visit to Codrington College. The college was richly endowed with the generous intention of establishing a great and useful school for the education of the youth of Barbados, the revenues of two large estates being appropriated to the institution. But Codrington's intention had not been duly regarded. The profits had been squandered and the funds disgracefully neglected or abused. The splendid edifice planned had not been finished, and the part that was erected had been brought into early decay. Only one side of the intended quadrangle had yet been built, and that, to the disgrace of those concerned, had long been left to fall into ruin. Something, however, had been done by the present manager to recover the estates and to direct the funds into their proper channel. The part of the building which had been erected was now undergoing a thorough repair in the hope of saving it from utter and premature destruction. Twelve boys only had as yet been admitted on the foundation, who, instead of occupying any part of the college building, were accommodated in the house of the master.1 A very different aspect of West Indian life is to be found in the rollicking pages of Tom Cringle's Log, but its author had lived fifteen years in the tropics, and, in spite of exaggerations, the book speaks with authority. In Kingston, he affirmed, the society was as good as could be met with in any provincial town anywhere; "and there prevailed a warmth of heart and a kindliness both in the males and females of those families to which I had the good fortune to be introduced, that I never experienced out of Jamaica"." The island was at the time in the heyday of its prosperity and Kingston harbour was full of shipping. "The result of this princely traffic, more magnificent than that of Tyre, was a stream of gold and silver flowing into the Bank of England, to the extent of £3,000,000 sterling annually, in return for British manufactures; thus supplying the sinews of war to the Government at home, and, besides the advantage of so large a mart, employing an immense amount of British tonnage and many thousand seamen, and in numberless ways opening up new outlets to British enterprise and capital." Considering their special circumstances it was natural that the West Indies did not produce much in the way of an indigenous literature; but Long's History of Jamaica and Bryan Edwards's History of the West Indies are vigorous and able statements of the history from the West Indian standpoint. 1 Pinckard, 1, 356-9. 2 Scott, M., Tom Cringle's Log (Everyman's Library edn), p. 125. BIBLIOGRAPHY Edited by LILLIAN M. PENSON A. GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY (Compiled from the Bibliographical Lists supplied by contributors) I. BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND GUIDES TO MATERIAL II. DOCUMENTARY MATERIAL (PRINTED AND UNPRINTED) B. SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES I. EXPLORATION AND SEA POWER 1. EXPLORATION, by Dr J. A. Williamson. 2: SEA POWER, by Professor J. Holland Rose. II. COLONIAL POLICY 1. GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION, by Professor C. M. Andrews. 2. ECONOMIC POLICY, by Professor C. M. Andrews and Professor J. F. Rees. 3. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EMPIRE, by Professor J. Ewing. III. THE HISTORY OF THE COLONIES 1. THE CONTINENTAL COLONIES, by Professor C. M. Andrews, C. Headlam and Professor A. P. Newton. 2. THE WEST INDIES, by Professor C. M. Andrews, C. Headlam, and Miss L. M. Penson. 3. WEST AFRICA, by Miss E. C. Martin. IV. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 1. THE CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE, by C. Headlam. A. GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY I. BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND GUIDES TO MATERIAL ANDREWS, C. M. Guide to the Materials for American History to 1783, in the Public Record Office of Great Britain. Vol. 1, The State Papers; Vol. п, Departmental and Miscellaneous Papers. Washington, 1912, 1914. ANDREWS, C. M. and DAVENPORT, F. G. Guide to the Manuscript Materials for the History of the United States to 1783, in the British Museum, in minor London Archives, and in the Libraries of Oxford and Cambridge. Washington, 1907. These three volumes provide a valuable analysis of the documentary materials for American and West Indian history, available in the better known British archives. ANDREWS, C. M. "List of the Journals and Acts of the Councils and Assemblies of the Thirteen Original Colonies and the Floridas in America, preserved in the Public Record Office." Report, American Historical Association, 1908, pp. 399-509. "List of the Commissions, Instructions, and Additional Instructions issued to the Royal Governors and Others in America to 1784." Report, American Historical Association, 1911, pp. 393-528. "List of Reports and Representations of the Plantation Councils, 1660–1674, the Lords of Trade, 1675-1696, and the Board of Trade, 1696–1782, in the Public Record Office." Report, American Historical Association, 1913, pp. 319-406. BARTLETT, J. R. Bibliography of Rhode Island. Providence, 1864. BELL, H. C., PARKER, D. W. and others. Guide to British West Indian Archive Materials, in London and in the Islands, for the History of the United States. Washington, 1926. CALLENDER, G. A. R. A Bibliography of Naval History. 2 pts. Historical Association Publicns. Nos. 58 and 61. London, 1924, 1925. CHANNING, E., HART, A. B. and TURNER, F. J. Guide to the Study of American History. 3rd ed. Boston, 1912. CUNDALL, F. Bibliographia Jamaicensis. Kingston, 1902. Supplement published in 1908. Bibliography of the West Indies, exclusive of Jamaica. Kingston, 1909. DAVENPORT, F. G. "Materials for English Diplomatic History, 1509-1783, Calendared in the Reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, with References to Similar Materials in the British Museum." xvith Report of the Royal Commission on Historical MSS. London, 1917. DAVIES, G. Bibliography of British History. Stuart Period, 1603-1714. Oxford, 1928. Chapter xv, by E. A. Benians, deals with "Voyages and Travels' Chapter XVI, by the late Professor H. E. Egerton, with "Colonial History". There is a valuable list of Bibliographies and Guides on pp. 355-7: GAY, J. Bibliographie des ouvrages relatifs à l'Afrique et à l'Arabie. Paris, 1875. GIUSEPPI, M. S. A Guide to the Manuscripts preserved in the Public Record Office. 2 vols. London, 1923. These volumes are an enlargement of Scargill-Bird's Guide to the Public Record Office, 3rd ed. 1909, which was for many years the standard work of reference. The material relating to colonial subjects is dealt with in the second volume. GRIFFIN, G. G. (Editor). Writings on American History, 1906 (and subsequent years to 1923). A Bibliography of Books and Articles on United States and Canadian History during the year. New Haven, 1908. This series was preceded by a volume in 1902 edited by E. G. Richardson and A. E. Morse, Princeton, 1904; and one in 1903 by A. C. McLaughlin, W. A. Slade, and E. D. Lewis, Washington, 1905. HIGHAM, C. S. S. Colonial Entry Books. Helps for the Students of History Series, No. 45, S.P.C.K. London, 1921. JAMESON, J. F. "Guide to the Items relating to American History in the Reports of the English Historical Manuscripts Commission." Report, American Historical Association, 1898, pp. 611-700. Washington, 1899. LARNED, J. N. The Literature of American History.... Boston, 1902. MALCOLM, H. List of Documents relating to the Bahama Islands in the British Museum and the Public Record Office. Nassau, 1910. NEWTON, A. P. (Editor). List of Selected Books relating to the History of the British Empire Overseas.... Historical Association Publicns. No. 46. Rev. ed. London, 1929. STEVENS, B. F. "Catalogue Index of MSS in the Archives of England, France, Holland, and Spain relating to America, 1763–83." 180 vols. In the Library of Congress. THOMAS, N. W. Bibliography of Anthropology and Folk Lore. 1908. Has a useful section on West Africa. WEEKS, S. B. Libraries and Literature of N. Carolina in the XVIIIth Century. Washington, 1895. Historical Review of the Colonial and State Records of N. Carolina. Raleigh, N.C. 1914. Index to the Colonial and State Records of North Carolina. Goldsboro', 1909-14. II. DOCUMENTARY MATERIAL (PRINTED AND UNPRINTED) I. OFFICIAL PAPERS PRESERVED IN BRITISH REPOSITORIES (a) Acts: (1) PARLIAMENTARY The Statutes of the Realm... (1101-1713). 11 vols. London, 1810-28. The Statutes at Large. Collected by D. Pickering. (1225-1761) 24 vols. Cambridge, 1762-9. Continued from 1761 to 1807. Cambridge, 1763-1807. FIRTH, C. H. and RAIT, R. S. Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum. 3 vols. London, 1911. (b) Debates: ALMON, J. Parliamentary Register, a History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons, 1774-82. 25 vols. London, 1775 sqq. COBBETT, W. and WRIGHT, J. Parliamentary History of England, 1066-1803. London, 1806 sqq. (c) Journals of the House of Lords, and Journals of the House of Commons: NOTE. All entries relating to colonial affairs for North America and the West Indies from the Journals and other sources are printed in STOCK, L. F., Proceedings and Debates of the British Parliaments respecting North America. Washington, 1924. In progress. Vol. I covers the years 1542-1688. (d) Parliamentary Papers and Miscellaneous MSS: The great series of Accounts and Papers and Reports of Commissioners, printed by order of one of the Houses of Parliament and required to be laid before them, is of the greatest value for colonial matters, but mainly after 1783. Among those of value for the period covered by this volume are the following reports upon West African affairs: Reports of Commissioners, 1816, vol. vII. 2; 1817, vol. vi. Reports of Committees appointed to investigate the affairs of the Company of Merchants trading to Africa. Reports of Commissioners, 1830, vol. x; 1842, vol. xi. Reports upon Sierra Leone and the British Possessions in Africa, respectively. |