Part 80 (1/2)

Soon after supper, Miss E., one of Mr. C.'s daughters, retired for the purpose of teaching a cla.s.s of colored children which came to her on Wednesday and Sat.u.r.day nights. A sister of Miss E. has a cla.s.s on the same days at noon.

During the evening we requested the favor of seeing Miss E.'s school. We were conducted by a flight of stairs into the bas.e.m.e.nt story, where we found her sitting in a small recess, and surrounded by a dozen negro girls; from the ages of eight to fifteen. She was instructing them from the Testament, which most of them could read fluently. She afterwards heard them recite some pa.s.sages which they had committed to memory, and interspersed the recitations with appropriate remarks of advice and exhortation.

It is to be remarked that Miss E. commenced instructing after the abolition; before that event the idea of such an employment would have been rejected as degrading.

At ten o'clock on Sabbath morning, we drove to the chapel of the parish, which is a mile and a half from Lear's. It contains seats for five hundred persons. The body of the house is appropriated to the apprentices. There were upwards of four hundred persons, mostly apprentices, present, and a more quiet and attentive congregation we have seldom seen. The people were neatly dressed. A great number of the men wore black or blue cloth. The females were generally dressed in white. The choir was composed entirely of blacks, and sung with characteristic excellence.

There was so much intelligence in the countenances of the people, that we could scarcely believe we were looking on a congregation of lately emanc.i.p.ated slaves.

We returned to Lear's. Mr. C. noticed the change which has taken place in the observance of the Sabbath since emanc.i.p.ation. Formerly the smoke would be often seen at this time of day pouring from the chimneys of the boiling-houses; but such a sight has not been seen since slavery disappeared.

Sunday used to be the day for the negroes to work on their grounds; now it is a rare thing for them to do so. Sunday markets also prevailed throughout the island, until the abolition of slavery.

Mr. C. continued to speak of slavery. ”I sometimes wonder,” said he, ”at myself, when I think how long I was connected with slavery; but self-interest and custom blinded me to its enormities.” Taking a short walk towards sunset, we found ourselves on the margin of a beautiful pond, in which myriads of small gold fishes were disporting--now circling about in rapid evolutions, and anon leaping above the surface, and displaying their brilliant sides in the rays of the setting sun.

When we had watched for some moments their happy gambols, Mr. C. turned around and broke a twig from a bush that stood behind us; ”_there is a bush_,” said he, ”_which has committed many a murder_.” On requesting him to explain, he said, that the root of it was a most deadly poison, and that the slave women used to make a decoction of it and give to their infants to destroy them; many a child had been murdered in this way. Mothers would kill their children, rather than see them _grow up to be slaves_. ”Ah,” he continued, in a solemn tone, pausing a moment and looking at us in a most earnest manner, ”I could write a book about the evils of slavery. I could write a book about these things.”

What a volume of blackness and blood![A]

[Footnote A: We are here reminded of a fact stated by Mr. C. on another occasion. He said, that he once attended at the death of a planter who had been noted for his severity to his slaves. It was the most horrid scene he ever witnessed. For hours before his death he was in the extremest agony, and the only words which he uttered were, ”Africa. O Africa!” These words he repeated every few minutes, till he died. And such a ghastly countenance, such distortions of the muscles, such a h.e.l.lish glare of the eye, and such convulsions of the body--it made him shudder to think of them.]

When we arose on Monday morning, the daylight has scarcely broken. On looking out of the window, we saw the mill slowly moving in the wind, and the field gang were going out to their daily work. Surely, we thought, this does not look much like the laziness and insubordination of freed negroes. After dressing, we walked down to the mill, to have some conversation with the people. They all bade us a cordial ”good mornin'.” The _tender_ of the mill was an old man, whose despised locks were gray and thin, and on whose brow the hands of time and sorrow had written many effaceless lines. He appeared hale and cheerful, and answered our questions in distinct intelligible language. We asked him how they were all getting along under the new system. ”Very well, ma.s.sa,” said he, ”very well, thank G.o.d. All peaceable and good.” ”Do you like the apprentices.h.i.+p better then slavery?” ”Great deal better, ma.s.sa; we is doing well now.” ”You like the apprentices.h.i.+p as well as freedom, don't you?” ”O _no_ me ma.s.sa, freedom _till better_.”

”What will you do when you are entirely free?”

”We must work; all have to work when de free come, white and black.”

”You are old, and will not enjoy freedom long; why do you wish for freedom, then?” ”Me want to _die_ free, ma.s.sa--good ting to die free, and me want to see _children_ free too.”

We continued at Lear's during Monday, to be in readiness for a tour to the windward of the island, which Mr. C. had projected for us, and on which we were to set out early the next morning. In the course of the day we had opportunities of seeing the apprentices in almost every situation--in the field, at the mill, in the boiling-house, moving to and from work, and at rest. In every aspect in which we viewed them, they appeared cheerful, amiable, and easy of control. It was admirable to see with what ease and regularity every thing moved. An estate of nearly seven hundred acres, with extensive agriculture, and a large manufactory and distillery, employing three hundred apprentices, and supporting twenty-five horses, one hundred and thirty head of horned cattle, and hogs, sheep; and poultry in proportion, is manifestly a most complicated machinery. No wonder it should have been difficult to manage during slavery, when the main spring was absent, and every wheel out of gear.

We saw the apprentices a.s.semble after twelve o'clock, to receive their allowances of yams. These provisions are distributed to them twice every week--on Monday and Thursday. They were strewed along the yard in heaps of fifteen pounds each. The apprentices came with baskets to get their allowances. It resembled a market scene, much chattering and talking, but no anger. Each man, woman, and child, as they got their baskets filled, placed them of their heads, and marched off to their several huts.

On Tuesday morning, at an early hour, Mr. C. took us in his phaeton on our projected excursion. It was a beautiful morning. There was a full breeze from the east, which had already started the ponderous wings of the wind-mills, in every direction. The sun was shaded by light clouds, which rendered the air quite cool. Crossing the rich valley in which the Bell estate and other n.o.ble properties are situated, we ascended the cliffs of St. John's--a ridge extending through the parish of that name and as we rode along its top, eastward, we had a delightful view of sea and land. Below us on either hand lay vast estates glowing in the, verdure of summer, and on three sides in the distance stretched the ocean. Rich swells of land, cultivated and blooming like a vast garden, extended to the north as far as the eye could reach, and on every other side down to the water's edge. One who has been accustomed to the wildness of American scenery, and to the imperfect cultivation, intercepted with woodland, which yet characterizes the even the oldest portions of the United States, might revel for a time amid the sunny meadows. The waving cane fields, the verdant provision grounds, the acres of rich black soil without a blade of gra.s.s, and divided into beds two feet square for the cane plants with the precision almost of the cells of a honey comb; and withal he might be charmed with the luxurious mansions--more luxurious than superb--surrounded with the white cedar, the cocoa-nut tree, and the tall, rich mountain cabbage--the most beautiful of all tropical trees; but perchance it would not require a very long excursion to weary him with the artificiality of the scenery, and cause him to sigh for the ”woods and wilds,” the ”banks and braes,”

of his own majestic country.

After an hour and a half's drive, we reached Colliton estate, where we were engaged to breakfast. We met a hearty welcome from the manager, Samuel Hinkston, Esq. we were soon joined by several gentlemen whom Mr.

H. had invited to take breakfast with us; these were the Rev. Mr.

Gittens, rector of St. Philip's parish, (in which Colliton estate is situated,) and member of the colonial council; Mr. Thomas, an extensive attorney of Barbadoes; and Dr. Bell, a planter of Demerara--then on a visit to the island. We conversed with each of the gentlemen separately, and obtained their individual views respecting emanc.i.p.ation.

Mr. Hinkston has been a planter for thirty-six years, and is highly esteemed throughout the island. The estate which he manages, ranks among the first in the island. It comprises six hundred acres of superior land, has a population of two hundred apprentices, and yields an average crop of one hundred and eighty hogsheads. Together with his long experience and standing as a planter, Mr. H. has been for many years local magistrate for the parish in which he resides. From these circ.u.mstances combined, we are induced to give his opinions on a variety of points.

1. He remarked that the planters were getting along _infinitely_ better under the new system than they ever did under the old. Instead of regretting that the change had taken place, he is looking forward with pleasure to a better change in 1840, and he only regrets that it is not to come sooner.

2. Mr. H. said it was generally conceded that the island was never under better cultivation than at the present time. The crops for this year will exceed the average by several thousand hogsheads. The canes were planted in good season, and well attended to afterwards.

3. Real estate has risen very much since emanc.i.p.ation. Mr. H. stated that he had lately purchased a small sugar estate, for which he was obliged to give several hundred pounds more than it would have cost him before 1834.

4. There is not the least sense of insecurity now. Before emanc.i.p.ation there was much fear of insurrection, but that fear pa.s.sed away with slavery.

5. The prospect for 1840 is good. That people have no fear of ruin after emanc.i.p.ation, is proved by the building of sugar works on estates which never had any before, and which were obliged to cart their canes to neighbouring estates to have them ground and manufactured. There are also numerous improvements making on the larger estates. Mr. H. is preparing to make a new mill and boiling-house on Colliton, and other planters are doing the same. Arrangements are making too in various directions to build new negro villages on a more commodious plan.

6. Mr. H. says he finds his apprentices perfectly ready to work for wages during their own time. Whenever he needs their labor on Sat.u.r.day, he has only to ask them, and they are ready to go to the mill, or field at once. There has not been an instance on Colliton estate in which the apprentices have refused to work, either during the hours required by law, or during their own time. When he does not need their services on Sat.u.r.day, they either hire themselves to other estates or work on their own grounds.