Part 83 (1/2)

The man was sentence to imprisonment.

III. The third complaint was against a woman for singing and making a disturbance in the field. Sentenced to six days' solitary confinement.

IV. An apprentice was brought up for not doing his work well. He was a mason, and was employed in erecting an arch on one of the public roads.

This case excited considerable interest. The apprentice was represented by his master to be a praedial--the master testified on oath that he was registered as a praedial; but in the course of the examination it was proved that he had always been a mason; that he had labored at that trade from his boyhood, and that he knew 'nothing about the hoe,' having never worked an hour in the field. This was sufficient to prove that he was a non-praedial, and of course ent.i.tled to liberty two years sooner than he would have been as a praedial. As this matter came up incidentally, it enraged the master exceedingly. He fiercely reiterated his charge against the apprentice, who, on his part, averred that he did his work as well as he could. The master manifested the greatest excitement and fury during the trial. At one time, because the apprentice disputed one of his a.s.sertions, he raised his clenched fist over him, and threatened, with an oath, to knock him down. The magistrate was obliged to threaten him severely before he would keep quiet.

The defendant was ordered to prison to be tried the next day, time being given to make further inquiries about his being a praedial.

V. The next case was a complaint against an apprentice, for leaving his place in the boiling house without asking permission. It appeared that he had been unwell during the evening, _and at half past ten o'clock at night_, being attacked more severely, he left for a few moments, expecting to return. He, however, was soon taken so ill that the could not go back, but was obliged to lie down on the ground, where he remained until twelve o'clock, when he recovered sufficiently to creep home. His sickness was proved by a fellow apprentice, and indeed his appearance at the bar clearly evinced it. He was punished by several days imprisonment. With no little astonishment in view of such a decision, we inquired of Maj. C. whether the planters had the power to require their people to work as late as half past ten at night. He replied, ”Certainly, _the crops must be secured at any rate, and if they are suffering, the people must be pressed the harder_.”[A]

[Footnote A: We learned subsequently from various authentic sources, that the master has _not_ the power to compel his apprentices to labor more than nine hours per day on any condition, except in case of a fire, or some similar emergency. If the call for labor in crop-time was to be set down as an emergency similar to a ”fire,” and if in official decisions he took equal lat.i.tude, alas for the poor apprentices!]

VI. The last case was a complaint against a man for not keeping up good fires under the boilers. He stoutly denied the charge; said he built as good fires as he could. He kept stuffing in the trash, and if it would not burn he could not help it. He was sentenced to imprisonment.

Maj. C. said that these complaints were a fair specimen of the cases that came up daily, save that there were many more frivolous and ridiculous. By the trials which we witnessed we were painfully impressed with two things:

1st. That the magistrate, with all his regard for the rights and welfare of the apprentices, showed a great and inexcusable partiality for the masters. The patience and consideration with which he heard the complaints of the latter, the levity with which he regarded the defence of the former, the summary manner in which he despatched the cases, and the character of some of his decisions, manifested no small degree of favoritism.

2d That the whole proceedings of the special magistrates' courts are eminently calculated to perpetuate bad feeling between the masters and apprentices. The court-room is a constant scene of angry dispute between these parties. The master exhausts his store of abuse and violence upon the apprentice, and the apprentice, emboldened by the place, and provoked by the abuse, retorts in language which he would never think of using on the estate, and thus, whatever may be the decision of the magistrate, the parties return home with feelings more embittered than ever.

There were twenty-six persons imprisoned at the station-house, twenty-four were at hard labor, and two were in solitary confinement.

The keeper of the prison said, he had no difficulty in managing the prisoners. The keeper is a colored man, and so also is the sergeant and most of the policemen.

We visited one other station-house, in a distant part of the island, situated in the district over which Captain Cuppage presides. We witnessed several trials there which were similar in frivolity and meanness to those detailed above. We were shocked with the mockery of justice, and the indifference to the interests of the negro apparent in the course of the magistrate. It seemed that little more was necessary than for the manager or overseer to make his complaint and swear to it, and the apprentice was forthwith condemned to punishment.

We never saw a set of men in whose countenances fierce pa.s.sions of every name were so strongly marked as in the overseers and managers who were a.s.sembled at the station-houses. Trained up to use the whip and to tyrannize over the slaves, their grim and evil expression accorded with their hateful occupation.

Through the kindness of a friend in Bridgetown we were favored with an interview with Mr. Jones, the superintendent of the rural police--the whole body of police excepting those stationed in the town. Mr. J. has been connected with the police since its first establishment in 1834. He a.s.sured us that there was nothing in the local peculiarities of the island, nor in the character of its population, which forbade immediate emanc.i.p.ation in August, 1834. He had no doubt it would be perfectly safe and decidedly profitable to the colony.

2. The good or bad working of the apprentices.h.i.+p depends mainly on the conduct of the masters. He was well acquainted with the character and disposition of the negroes throughout the island, and he was ready to say, that if disturbances should arise either before or after 1840, it would be because the people were goaded on to desperation by the planters, and not because they sought disturbance themselves.

3. Mr. J. declared unhesitatingly that crime had not increased since abolition, but rather the contrary.

4. He represented the special magistrates as the friends of the planters. They loved the _dinners_ which they got at the planters'

houses. The apprentices had no sumptuous dinners to give them. The magistrates felt under very little obligation of any kind to a.s.sert the cause of the apprentice and secure him justice, while they were under very strong temptations to favor the master.

5. Real estate had increased in value nearly fifty per cent since abolition. There is such entire security of property, and the crops since 1834 have been so flattering, that capitalists from abroad are desirous of investing their funds in estates or merchandise. All are making high calculations for the future.

6. Mr. J. testified that marriages had greatly increased since abolition. He had seen a dozen couples standing at one time on the church floor. There had, he believed, been more marriages within the last three years among the negro population, than have occurred before since the settlement of the island.

We conclude this chapter by subjoining two highly interesting doc.u.ments from special magistrates. They were kindly furnished us by the authors in pursuance of an order from his excellency the Governor, authorizing the special magistrates to give us any official statements which we might desire. Being made acquainted with these instructions from the Governor, we addressed written queries to Major Colthurst and Captain Hamilton. We insert their replies at length.

COMMUNICATION FROM MAJOR COLTHURST, SPECIAL MAGISTRATE.

The following fourteen questions on the working of the apprentices.h.i.+p system in this colony were submitted to me on the 30th of March, 1837, requesting answers thereto.

1. What is the number of apprenticed laborers in your district, and what is their character compared with other districts?

The number of apprenticed laborers, of all ages, in my district, in nine thousand four hundred and eighty, spread over two hundred and ninety-seven estates of various descriptions--some very large, and others again very small--much the greater number consisting of small lots in the near neighborhood of Bridgetown. Perhaps my district, in consequence of this minute subdivision of property, and its contact with the town, is the most troublesome district in the island; and the character of the apprentices differs consequently from that in the more rural districts, where not above half the complaints are made. I attribute this to their almost daily intercourse with Bridgetown.