Part 89 (1/2)
The secretary of the special magistrate department, Richard Hill, Esq., is a colored gentleman, and is one of the first men in the island,[A]
for integrity, independence, superior abilities, and extensive acquirements. It has seldom been our happiness to meet with a man more ill.u.s.trious for true n.o.bility of soul, or in whose countenance there were deeper traces of intellectual and moral greatness. We are confident that no man can _see_ him without being impressed with his rare combination of excellences.
[Footnote A: We learn from the Jamaica papers, since our return to this country, that Mr. Hill has been elected a member of the a.s.sembly.]
Having said thus much respecting the political advancement of the colored people, it is proper to remark, that they have by no means evinced a determination to claim more than their share of office and influence. On the contrary, they stop very far short of what they are ent.i.tled to. Having an extent of suffrage but little less than the whites, they might fill one third of the seats in the a.s.sembly, whereas they now return but four members out of forty-five. The same may be said of other offices, particularly those in the city of Kingston, and the larger towns, where they are equal to, or more numerous, than the whites. It is a fact, that a portion of the colored people continue at this time to return white members to the a.s.sembly, and to vote for white aldermen and other city officers. The influential men among them, have always urged them to take up white men, unless they could find _competent_ men of their own color. As they remarked to us, if they were obliged to send an _a.s.s_ to the a.s.sembly, it was far better for _them_ to send a _white_ a.s.s than a _black_ one.
In company with a friend, we visited the princ.i.p.al streets and places of business in Kingston, for the purpose of seeing for ourselves the general employments of the people of color; and those who engage in the lowest offices, such as porters, watermen, draymen, and servants of all grades, from him who flaunts in livery, to him who polishes shoes, are of course from this cla.s.s. So with the fruiterers, fishmongers, and the almost innumerable tribe of petty hucksters which swarm throughout the city, and is collected in a dense ma.s.s in its suburbs. The market, which is the largest and best in the West Indies, is almost entirely supplied and attended by colored persons, mostly females. The great body of artisans is composed mostly of colored persons.
There are two large furniture and cabinet manufactories in Kingston, one owned by two colored men, and the other by a white man. The operatives, of which one contains eighty, and the other nearly as many, are all black and colored. A large number of them are what the British law terms _apprentices_, and are still bound in unremunerated servitude, though some of them for thrice seven years have been adepts in their trades, and not a few are earning their masters twenty or thirty dollars each month, clear of all expenses. Some of these _apprentices_ are h.o.a.ry-headed and wrinkle-browned men, with their children, and grand-children, apprentices also, around them, and who, after having used the plane and the chisel for half a century, with faithfulness for _others_, are now spending the few hours and the failing strength of old again in _preparing_ to use the plane and the chisel for _themselves_.
The work on which they were engaged evinced no lack of mechanical skill and ingenuity, but on the contrary we were shown some of the most elegant specimens of mechanical skill, which we ever saw. The rich woods of the West Indies were put into almost every form and combination which taste could designate or luxury desire.
The owners of these establishments informed us that their business had much _increased within the last two years_, and was still extending.
Neither of them had any fears for the results of complete emanc.i.p.ation, but both were laying their plans for the future as broadly and confidently as ever.
In our walk we accidentally met a colored man, whom we had heard mentioned on several occasions as a superior architect. From the conversation we had with him, then and subsequently, he appeared to possess a fine mechanical genius, and to have made acquirements which would be honorable in any man, but which were truly admirable in one who had been shut up all his life by the disabilities which in Jamaica have, until recently, attached to color. He superintended the erection of the Wesleyan chapel in Kingston, the largest building of the kind in the island, and esteemed by many as the most elegant. The plan was his own, and the work was executed under his own eye. This man is using his means and influence to encourage the study of his favorite art, and of the arts and sciences generally, among those of his own hue.
One of the largest bookstores in the island is owned by two colored men.
(Messrs. Jordon and Osborne, already referred to.) Connected with it is an extensive printing-office, from which a newspaper is issued twice a week. Another paper, under the control of colored men, is published at Spanishtown. These are the two princ.i.p.al liberal presses in Jamaica, and are conducted with spirit and ability. Their influence in the political and civil affairs of the island is very great. They are the organs of the colored people, bond and free, and through them any violation of law or humanity is exposed to the public, and redress demanded, and generally obtained. In literary merit and correctness of moral sentiment, they are not excelled by any press there, while some of their white contemporaries fall far below them in both. Besides the workmen employed in these two offices, there is a large number of colored printers in the other printing offices, of which there are several.
We called at two large establishment for making jellies, comfits, pickles, and all the varieties of tropic _preserves_. In each of them thirty or more persons are constantly employed, and a capital of some thousands of dollars invested. Several large rooms were occupied by boxes, jars, and canisters, with the apparatus necessary to the process, through which the fruit pa.s.ses. We saw every species of fruits and vegetables which the island produces, some fresh from the trees and vines, and others ready to be transported to the four quarters of the globe, in almost every state which the invalid or epicure could desire.
These articles, with the different preparations of arrow-root and ca.s.sada, form a lucrative branch of trade, which is mostly in the hands of the colored people.
We were introduced to a large number of colored merchants, dealers in dry goods, crockery and gla.s.s ware, ironmongers, booksellers, druggists, grocers, and general importers and were conducted by them through their stores; many of which were on an extensive scale, and managed, apparently, with much order and regularity. One of the largest commercial houses in Kingston has a colored man as a partner, the other two being white. Of a large auction and commission firm, the most active and leading partner is a colored man. Besides these, there is hardly a respectable house among the white merchants, in which some important office, oftentimes the head clerks.h.i.+p, is not filled by a person of color. They are as much respected in business transactions, and their mercantile talents, their acquaintance with the generalities and details of commerce, and sagacity and judgment in making bargains, are as highly esteemed by the white merchants, as though they wore an European hue.
The commercial room is open to them, where they resort unrestrainedly to ascertain the news; and a visitor may not unfrequently see sitting together at a table of newspapers, or conversing together in the parlance of trade, persons as dissimilar in complexion as white and black can make them. In the streets the same intercourse is seen.
The general trade of the island is gradually and quietly pa.s.sing into the hands of the colored people. Before emanc.i.p.ation, they seldom reached a higher grade in mercantile life than a clerks.h.i.+p, or, if they commenced business for themselves, they were shackled and confined in their operations by the overgrown and monopolizing establishments which slavery had built up. Though the civil and political rights of one cla.s.s of them were acknowledged three years previous, yet they found they could not, even if they desired it, disconnect themselves from the slaves. They could not transact business--form credits and agencies, and receive the confidence of the commercial public--like free men. Strange or not, their fate was inseparably linked with that of the bondman, their interests were considered as involved with his. However honest they might be, it was not safe to trust them; and any attempt to rise above a clerks.h.i.+p, to become the employer instead of the employed, was regarded as a kind of insurrection, and strongly disapproved and opposed. Since emanc.i.p.ation, they have been unshackling them selves from white domination in matters of trade; extending their connections, and becoming every day more and more independent. They have formed credits with commercial houses abroad, and now import directly for themselves, at wholesale prices, what they were formerly obliged to receive from white importers, or rather speculators, at such prices as they, in their tender mercies, saw fit to impose.
Trade is now equalizing itself among all cla.s.ses. A spirit of compet.i.tion is awakened, banks have been established, steam navigation introduced, railroads projected, old highways repaired, and new ones opened. The descendants of the slaves are rapidly supplying the places which were formerly filled by whites from abroad.
We had the pleasure of being present one day at the sitting of the police court of Kingston. Mr. Jordon, the editor of the Watchman, in his turn as a member of the common council, was presiding justice, with an alderman of the city, a black man, as his a.s.sociate. At a table below them sat the superintendent of police, a white man, and two white attorneys, with their huge law books and green bags before them. The bar was surrounded by a motley a.s.semblage of black, colored, and white faces, intermingled without any regard to hue in the order of superiority and precedence. There were about a dozen cases adjudged while we were present. The court was conducted with order and dignity, and the justices were treated with great respect and deference both by white and black.
After the adjournment of the court, we had some conversation with the presiding justice. He informed us that whites were not unfrequently brought before him for trial, and, in spite of his color, sometimes even our own countrymen. He mentioned several instances of the latter, in some of which American prejudice a.s.sumed very amusing and ludicrous forms. In one case, he was obliged to threaten the party, a captain from one of our southern ports, with imprisonment for contempt, before he could induce him to behave himself with proper decorum. The captain, unaccustomed to obey injunctions from men of such a complexion, curled his lip in scorn, and showed a spirit of defiance, but on the approach of two police officers, whom the court had ordered to arrest him, he submitted himself. We were gratified with the spirit of good humor and pleasantry with which Mr. J. described the astonishment and gaping curiosity which Americans manifest on seeing colored men in offices of authority, particularly on the judicial bench, and their evident embarra.s.sment and uneasiness whenever obliged to transact business with them as magistrates. He seemed to regard it as a subject well worthy of ridicule; and we remarked, in our intercourse with the colored people, that they were generally more disposed to make themselves merry with American sensitiveness on this point, than to bring serious complaints against it, though they feel deeply the wrongs which they have suffered from it, and speak of them occasionally with solemnity and earnestness.
Still the feeling is so absurd and ludicrous in itself, and is exhibited in so many grotesque positions, even when oppressive, that the sufferer cannot help laughing at it. Mr. Jordon has held his present office since 1832. He has had an extensive opportunity, both as a justice of the police court, and as a member of the jail committee, and in other official stations, to become well acquainted with the state of crime in the island at different periods. He informed us that the number of complaints brought before him had much diminished since 1834, and he had no hesitation in saying, that crime had decreased throughout the island generally more than one third.
During one of our excursions into the country, we witnessed another instance of the amicability with which the different colors a.s.sociated in the civil affairs of the island. It was a meeting of one of the parish vestries, a kind of local legislature, which possesses considerable power over its own territory. There were fifteen members present, and nearly as many different shades of complexion. There was the planter of aristocratic blood, and at his side was a deep mulatto, born in the same parish a slave. There was the quadroon, and the unmitigated hue and unmodified features of the negro. They sat together around a circular table, and conversed as freely as though they had been all of one color. There was no restraint, no uneasiness, as though the parties felt themselves out of place, no a.s.sumption nor disrespect, but all the proceedings manifested the most perfect harmony, confidence, and good feeling.
At the same time there was a meeting of the parish committee on roads, at which there was the same intermixture of colors, the same freedom and kindness of demeanor, and the same unanimity of action. Thus it is with all the political and civil bodies in the island, from the House of a.s.sembly, to committees on jails and houses of correction. Into all of them, the colored people are gradually making their way, and partic.i.p.ating in public debates and public measures, and dividing with the whites legislative and judicial power, and in many cases they exhibit a superiority, and in all cases a respectability, of talents and attainments, and a courtesy and general propriety of conduct, which gain for them the respect of the intelligent and candid among their white a.s.sociates.
We visited the house of correction for the parish of St. Andrews. The superintendent received us with the iron-hearted courtesy of a Newgate turnkey. Our company was evidently unwelcome, but as the friend who accompanied us was a man in authority, he was constrained to admit us.
The first sound that greeted us was a piercing outcry from the treadmill. On going to it, we saw a youth of about eighteen hanging in the air by a strap bound to his wrist, and dangling against the wheel in such a manner that every revolution of it sc.r.a.ped the body from the breast to the ankles. He had fallen off from weakness and fatigue, and was struggling and crying in the greatest distress, while the strap, which extended to a pole above and stretched his arm high above his head, held him fast. The superintendent, in a harsh voice, ordered him to be lifted up, and his feet again placed on the wheel. But before he had taken five steps, he again fell off, and was suspended as before. At the same instant, a woman also fell off, and without a sigh or the motion of a muscle, for she was too much exhausted for either, but with a shocking wildness of the eye, hung by her half-dislocated arms against the wheel. As the allotted time (fifteen minutes) had expired, the persons on the wheel were released, and permitted to rest. The boy could hardly stand on the ground. He had a large ulcer on one of his feet, which was much swollen and inflamed, and his legs and body were greatly bruised and peeled by the revolving of the wheel. The gentleman who was with us reproved the superintendent severely for his conduct, and told him to remove the boy from the treadmill gang, and see that proper care was taken of him. The poor woman who fell off, seemed completely exhausted; she tottered to the wall near by, and took up a little babe which we had not observed before. It appeared to be not more than two or three months old, and the little thing stretched out its arms and welcomed its mother. On inquiry, we ascertained that this woman's offence was absence from the field an hour after the required time (six o'clock) in the morning. Besides the infant with her, she had two or three other children. Whether the care of them was any excuse for her, we leave American mothers to judge. There were two other women on the treadmill--one was sentenced there for stealing cane from her master's field, and the other, we believe, for running away.
The superintendent next took us to the solitary cells. They were dirty, and badly ventilated, and unfit to keep beasts in. On opening the doors, such a stench rushed forth, that we could not remain. There was a poor woman in one of them, who appeared, as the light of day and the fresh air burst in upon her, like a despairing maniac.
We went through the other buildings, all of which were old and dirty, nay, worse, _filthy_ in the extreme. The whole establishment was a disgrace to the island. The prisoners were poorly clad, and had the appearance of harsh usage. Our suspicions of ill treatment were strengthened by noticing a large whip in the treadmill, and sundry iron collars and handcuffs hanging about in the several rooms through which we pa.s.sed.
The number of inmates in this house at our visit, was forty-eight--eighteen of whom were females. Twenty of these were in the treadmill and in solitary confinement--the remainder were working on the public road at a little distance--many of them _in irons_--iron collars about their necks, and chains pa.s.sing between, connecting them together two and two.
CHAPTER II.