Part 81 (2/2)
6. The condition of the people improved astonis.h.i.+ngly. They became one of the most industrious and orderly gangs in the parish. Under the former system they were considered inadequate to do the work of the estate, and the manager was obliged to hire additional hands every year, to take off the crop; but Mr. P. never hired any, though he made as large crops as were made formerly.
7. After the abolition of slavery, his people chose to continue on the same system of task work.
Mr. P. stated that the planters were universally opposed to his experiment. They laughed at the idea of making negroes work without using the whip; and they all prophesied that it would prove an utter failure. After some months' successful trial, he asked some of his neighbor planters what they thought of it then, and he appealed to than to say whether he did not get his work done as thoroughly and seasonably as they did theirs. They were compelled to admit it; but still they were opposed to his system, even more than ever. They called it an _innovation_--it was setting a bad example; and they honestly declared that they did not wish the slaves to _have any time of their own_. Mr.
P. said, he was first induced to try the system of task work from a consideration that the negroes were men as well as himself, and deserved to he dealt with as liberally as their relation would allow. He soon found that what was intended as a favor to the slaves was really a benefit to the master. Mr. P. was persuaded that entire freedom would be better for all parties than apprentices.h.i.+p. He had heard some fears expressed concerning the fate of the island after 1840; but he considered them very absurd.
Although this planter looked forward with sanguine hopes to 1840, yet he would freely say that he did not think the apprentices.h.i.+p would be any preparation for entire freedom. The single object with the great majority of the planters seemed to be to _get as much out_ of the apprentices as they possibly could during the term. No attention had been paid to preparing the apprentices for freedom.
We were introduced to a planter who was notorious during the reign of slavery for the _strictness of his discipline_, to use the Barbadian phrase, or, in plain English, for his rigorous treatment and his cruelty.
He is the proprietor of three sugar estates and one cotton plantation in Barbadoes, on all of which there are seven hundred apprentices. He was a luxurious looking personage, bottle-cheeked and huge i' the midst, and had grown fat on slaveholding indulgences. He mingled with every sentence he uttered some profane expression, or solemn appeal to his ”honor,” and seemed to be greatly delighted with hearing himself talk.
He displayed all those prejudices which might naturally be looked for in a mind educated and trained as his had been. As to the conduct of the apprentices, he said they were peaceable and industrious, and mostly well disposed. But after all, the negroes were a perverse race of people. It was a singular fact, he said, that the severer the master, the better the apprentices. When the master was mild and indulgent, they were sure to be lazy, insolent, and unfaithful. _He knew this by experience; this was the case with_ his _apprentices_. His house-servants especially were very bad. But there was one complaint he had against them all, domestics and praedials--they always hold him to the letter of the law, and are ready to arraign him before the special magistrate for every infraction of it on his part, however trifling. How ungrateful, truly! After being provided for with parental care from earliest infancy, and supplied yearly with two suits of clothes, and as many yams is they could eat and only having to work thirteen or fifteen hours per day in return; and now when they are no longer slaves, and new privileges are conferred to exact them to the full extent of the law which secures them--what ingrat.i.tude! How soon are the kindnesses of the past, and the hand that bestowed them, forgotten! Had these people possessed the sentiments of human beings, they would have been willing to take the boon of freedom and lay it at their master's feet, dedicating the remainder of their days to his discretionary service!
But with all his violent prejudices, this planter stated some facts which are highly favorable to the apprentices.
1. He frankly acknowledged that his estates were never under better cultivation than at the present time: and he could say the same of the estates throughout the island. The largest crops that have ever been made, will he realized this year.
2. The apprentices are generally willing to work on the estates on Sat.u.r.day whenever their labor is needed.
3. The females are very much disposed to abandon field labor. He has great difficulty sometimes in inducing them to take their hoes and go out to the field along with the men; it was the case particularly _with the mothers!_ This he regarded as a sore evil!
4. The free children he represented as being in a wretched condition.
Their parents have the entire management of them, an they are utterly opposed to having them employed on the estates. He condemned severely the course taken in a particular instance by the late Governor, Sir Lionel Smith. He took it upon himself to go around the island and advise the parents never to bind their children in any kind of apprentices.h.i.+p to the planters. He told them that sooner than involve their free children in any way, they ought to ”work their own fingers to the stubs.” The consequence of this imprudent measure, said our informant, is that the planters have no control over the children born on their estates; and in many instances their parents have sent them away lest their _residence_ on the property should, by some chance, give the planter a claim upon their services. Under the good old system the young children were placed together under the charge of some superannuated women, who were fit for nothing else, and the mothers went into the field to work; now the nursery is broken up, and the mothers spend half of their time ”_in taking care of their brats_.”
5. As to the management of the working people, there need not he any more difficulty now then during slavery. If the magistrates, instead of encouraging the apprentices to complain and be insolent, would join their influence to support the authority of the planters, things might go on nearly as smoothly as before.
In company with Rev. Mr. Packer, late Rector of St. Thomas, we rode out to the Belle estate, which is considered one of the finest in the island. Mr. Marshall, the manager, received us cordially. He was selected, with two others, by Sir Lionel Smith, to draw up a scale of labor for general use in the island. There are five hundred acres in the estate, and two hundred and thirty-five apprenticed laborers. The manager stated that every thing was working well on his property. He corroborated the statements made by other planters with r.e.t.a.r.d to the conduct of the apprentices. On one point he said the planters had found themselves greatly disappointed. It was feared that after emanc.i.p.ation the negroes would be very much verse to cultivating cane, as it was supposed that nothing but the whip could induce them to perform that species of labor. But the truth is, they now not only cultivate the estate lands better than they did when under the lash, but also cultivate a third of their half-acre allotments in cane on their own accounts. They would plant the whole in cane if they were not discouraged by the planter, whose princ.i.p.al objection to their doing so is that it would lead to the entire neglect of _provision cultivation_.
The apprentices on Belle estate will make little short of one thousand dollars the present season by their sugar.
Mr. M. stated that he was extensively acquainted with the cultivation of the island, and he knew that it was in a better condition than it had been for many years. There were twenty-four estates under the same attorneys.h.i.+p with the Belle, and they were all in the same prosperous condition.
A short time before we left Barbadoes we received an invitation from Col. Barrow, to breakfast with him at his residence on Edgecome estate--about eight miles from town. Mr. c.u.mmins, a colored gentleman, a merchant of Bridgetown, and agent of Col. B., accompanied us.
The proprietor of Edgecome is a native of Barbadoes, of polished manners and very liberal views. He has travelled extensively, has held many important offices, and is generally considered the _cleverest_ man in the island. He is now a member of the council, and acting attorney for about twenty estates. He remarked that he had always desired emanc.i.p.ation, and had prepared himself for it; but that it had proved a greater blessing than he had expected. His apprentices did as much work as before, and it was done without the application of the whip. He had not had any cases of insubordination, and it was very seldom that he had any complaints to make to the special magistrate. ”The apprentices.”
said he, ”understand the meaning of law, and they regard its authority.”
He thought there was no such thing in the island as a _sense of insecurity_, either as respected person or property. Real estate had risen in value.
Col. B. alluded to the expensiveness of slavery, remarking that after all that was expended in purchasing the slaves, it cost the proprietor as much to maintain them, as it would to hire free men. He spoke of the habit of exercising arbitrary power, which being in continual play up to the time of abolition, had become so strong that managers even yet gave way to it, and frequently punished their apprentices, in spite of all penalties. The fines inflicted throughout the island in 1836, upon planters, overseers, and others, for punis.h.i.+ng apprentices, amounted to one thousand two hundred dollars. Col. B. said that he found the legal penalty so inadequate, that in his own practice he was obliged to resort to other means to deter his book-keepers and overseers from violence; hence he discharged every man under his control who was known to strike an apprentice. He does not think that the apprentices.h.i.+p will be a means of preparing the negroes for freedom, nor does he believe that they _need_ any preparation. He should have apprehended no danger, had emanc.i.p.ation taken place in 1834.
At nine o'clock we sat down to breakfast. Our places were a.s.signed at opposite sides of the table, between Col. B. and Mr. C. To an American eye, we presented a singular spectacle. A wealthy planter, a member of the legislative council, sitting at the breakfast table with a colored man, whose mother was a negress of the most unmitigated hue, and who himself showed a head of hair as curly as his mother's! But this colored guest was treated with all that courtesy and attention to which his intelligence, worth and accomplished manners so justly ent.i.tle him.
About noon, we left Edgecome, and drove two miles farther, to Horton--an estate owned by Foster Clarke, Esq., an attorney for twenty-two estates, who is now temporarily residing in England. The intelligent manager of Horton received us and our colored companion, with characteristic hospitality. Like every one else, he told us that the apprentices.h.i.+p was far better than slavery, though he was looking forward to the still better system, entire freedom.
After we had taken a lunch, Mr. c.u.mmins invited our host to take a seat, with us in his carriage, and we drove across the country to Drax Hall.
Drax Hall is the largest estate in the island--consisting of eight hundred acres. The manager of this estate confirmed the testimony of the Barbadian planters in every important particular.
From Drax Hall we returned to Bridgetown, accompanied by our friend c.u.mmins.
<script>