Part 90 (1/2)
About two weeks before, the apprentices on Thornton estate, amounting to about ninety, had refused to work, and fled in a body to the woods, where they still remained. Their complaint, according to our informant, was, that their master had turned the cattle upon their provision grounds, and all their provisions were destroyed, so that they could not live. They, therefore, determined that they would not continue at work, seeing they would be obliged to starve. Mr. W. stated that he had visited the provision grounds, in company with two _disinterested planters_, and he could affirm that the apprentices had _no just cause of complaint_. It was true their fences had been broken down, and their provisions had been somewhat injured, but the fence could be very easily repaired, and there was an _abundance of yams left_ to furnish food for the whole gang for some time to come--those that were destroyed being chiefly young roots which would not have come to maturity for several months. These statements were the substance of a formal report which he had just prepared for the eye of Sir Lionel Smith, and which he was kind enough to read to us. This was a fine report, truly, to come from a special justice. To say nothing of the short time in which the fence might be repaired, those were surely very dainty-mouthed cattle that would consume those roots only which were so small that several months would be requisite for their maturity. The report concluded with a recommendation to his Excellency to take seminary vengeance upon a few of the gang as soon as they could be arrested, since they had set such an example to the surrounding apprentices. He could not see how order and subordination could be preserved in his district unless such a punishment was inflicted as would be a warning to all evil doers. He further suggested the propriety of sending the maroons[A] after them, to hunt them out of their hiding places and bring them to justice.
[Footnote A: The maroons are free negroes, inhabiting the mountains of the interior, who were formerly hired by the authorities, or by planters, to hunt up runaway slaves, and return them to their masters.
Unfortunately our own country is not without _its_ maroons.]
We chanced to obtain a different version of this affair, which, as it was confirmed by different persons in Bath, both white and colored, who had no connection with each other, we cannot help thinking it the true one.
The apprentices on Thornton, are what is termed a jobbing gang, that is, they are hired out by their master to any planter who may want their services. Jobbing is universally regarded by the negroes as the worst kind of service, for many reasons--princ.i.p.ally because it often takes them many miles from their homes, and they are still required to supply themselves with food from their own provision grounds. They are allowed to return home every Friday evening or Sat.u.r.day, and stay till Monday morning. The owner of the gang in question lately died--to whom it is said they were greatly attached--and they pa.s.sed into the hands of a Mr.
Jocken, the present overseer. Jocken is a notoriously cruel man. It was scarcely a twelvemonth ago, that he was fined one hundred pounds currency, and sentenced to imprisonment for three months in the Kingston jail, _for tying one of his apprentices to a dead ox_, because the animal died while in the care of the apprentice. He also confined a woman in the same pen with a dead sheep, because she suffered the sheep to die. Repeated acts of cruelty have caused Jocken to be regarded as a monster in the community. From a knowledge of his character, the apprentices of Thornton had a strong prejudice against him. One of the earliest acts after he went among them, was to break down their fences, and turn his cattle into their provision grounds. He then ordered them to go to a distant estate to work. This they refused to do, and when he attempted to compel them to go, they left the estate in a body, and went to the woods. This is what is called a _state of open rebellion_, and for this they were to be hunted like beasts, and to suffer such a terrible punishment as would deter all other apprentices from taking a similar step.
This Jocken is the same wretch who wantonly handcuffed the apprentice, who went on to his estate by the direction of his master.
Mr. Willis showed us a letter which he had received that morning from a planter in his district, who had just been trying an experiment in job work, (i.e., paying his people so much for a certain amount of work.) He had made a proposition to one of the head men on the estate, that he would give him a doubloon an acre if he would get ten acres of cane land holed. The man employed a large number of apprentices, and accomplished the job on three successive Sat.u.r.days. They worked at the rate of nearly one hundred holes per day for each man, whereas the usual day's work is only seventy-five holes.
Mr. W. bore testimony that the great body of the negroes in his district were very peaceable. There were but a few _incorrigible fellows_, that did all the mischief. When any disturbance took place on an estate, he could generally tell who the individual offenders were. He did not think there would be any serious difficulty after 1840. However, the result he thought would _greatly depend on the conduct of the managers!_
We met in Bath with the proprietor of a coffee estate situated a few miles in the country. He gave a very favorable account of the people on his estate; stating that they were as peaceable and industrious as he could desire, that he had their confidence, and fully expected to retain it after entire emanc.i.p.ation. He antic.i.p.ated no trouble whatever, and he felt a.s.sured, too, that if _the planters would conduct in a proper manner_, emanc.i.p.ation would be a blessing to the whole colony.
We called on the Wesleyan missionary, whom we found the decided friend and advocate of freedom. He scrupled not to declare his sentiments respecting the special magistrate, whom he declared to be a cruel and dishonest man. He seemed to take delight in flogging the apprentices. He had got a whipping machine made and erected in front of the Episcopal church in the village of Bath. It was a frame of a triangular shape, the base of which rested firmly on the ground, and having a perpendicular beam from the base to the apex or angle. To this beam the apprentice's body was lashed, with his face towards the machine, and his arms extended at right angles, and tied by the wrists. The missionary had witnessed the floggings at this machine repeatedly, as it stood but a few steps from his house. Before we reached Bath, the machine had been removed from its conspicuous place and _concealed in the bushes, that the governor might not see it when he visited the village_.
As this missionary had been for several years laboring in the island, and had enjoyed the best opportunities to become extensively acquainted with the negroes, we solicited from him a written answer to a number of inquiries. We make some extracts from his communication.
1. Have the facilities for missionary effort greatly increased since the abolition of slavery?
The opportunities of the apprentices to attend the means of grace are greater than during absolute slavery. They have now one day and a half every week to work for their support, leaving the Sabbath free to wors.h.i.+p G.o.d.
2. Do you antic.i.p.ate that these facilities will increase still more after entire freedom?
Yes. The people will then have _six days of their own to labor for their bread_, and will be at liberty to go to the house of G.o.d every Sabbath.
Under the present system, the magistrate often takes away the Sat.u.r.day, as a punishment, and then they must either work on the Sabbath or starve.
3. Are the negroes likely to revenge by violence the wrongs which they have suffered, after they obtain their freedom?
_I never heard the idea suggested, nor should I have thought of it had you not made the inquiry._
We called on Mr. Rogers, the teacher of a Mico charity infant school in Bath. Mr. R., his wife and daughter, are all engaged in this work. They have a day school, and evening school three evenings in the week, and Sabbath school twice each Sabbath. The evening schools are for the benefit of the adult apprentices, who manifest the greatest eagerness to learn to read. After working all day, they will come several miles to school, and stay cheerfully till nine o'clock.
Mr. R. furnished us with a written communication, from which we extract the following.
_Quest._ Are the apprentices desirous of being instructed?
_Ans._ Most a.s.suredly they are; in proof of which I would observe that since our establishment in Bath, the people not only attend the schools regularly, but if they obtain a leaf of a book with letters upon it, that is their _constant companion_. We have found mothers with their sucking babes in their arms, standing night after night in their cla.s.ses learning the alphabet.
_Q._ Are the negroes grateful for attentions and favors?
_A._ They are; I have met some who have been so much affected by acts of kindness, that they have burst into tears, exclaiming, 'Ma.s.sa so kind--my heart full.' Their affection to their teachers is very remarkable. On my return lately from Kingston, after a temporary absence, the negroes flocked to our residence and surrounded the chaise, saying, 'We glad to see ma.s.sa again; we glad to see school ma.s.sa.' On my way through an estate some time ago, some of the children observed me, and in a transport of joy cried, 'Thank G.o.d, ma.s.sa come again! Bless G.o.d de Savior, ma.s.sa come again!'
Mr. R., said he, casually met with an apprentice whose master had lately died. The man was in the habit of visiting his master's grave every Sat.u.r.day. He said to Mr. R., ”Me go to ma.s.sa grave, and de water come into me yeye; but me can't help it, ma.s.sa, _de water will come into me yeye_.”
The Wesleyan missionary told us, that two apprentices, an aged man and his daughter, a young woman, had been brought up by their master before the special magistrate who sentenced them to several days confinement in the house of correction at Morant Bay and to dance the treadmill. When the sentence was pa.s.sed the daughter entreated that she might be allowed to _do her father's part_, as well as her own, on the treadmill, for he was too old to dance the wheel--it would kill him.
From Bath we went into the Plantain Garden River Valley, one of the richest and most beautiful savannahs in the island. It is an extensive plain, from one to three miles wide, and about six miles long. The Plantain Garden River, a small stream, winds through the midst of the valley lengthwise, emptying into the sea. Pa.s.sing through the valley, we went a few miles south of it to call on Alexander Barclay, Esq., to whom we had a letter of introduction. Mr. Barclay is a prominent member of the a.s.sembly, and an attorney for eight estates. He made himself somewhat distinguished a few years ago by writing an octavo volume of five hundred pages in defence of the colonies, i.e., in defence of colonial slavery. It was a reply to Stephen's masterly work against West India slavery, and was considered by the Jamaicans a triumphant vindication of their ”peculiar inst.i.tutions.” We went several miles out of our route expressly to have an interview with so zealous and celebrated a champion of slavery. We were received with marked courtesy by Mr. B., who constrained us to spend a day and night with him at his seat at Fairfield. One of the first objects that met our eye in Mr. B.'s dining hall was a splendid piece of silver plate, which was presented to him by the planters of St. Thomas in the East, in consideration of his able defence of colonial slavery. We were favorably impressed with Mr.
B.'s intelligence, and somewhat so with his present sentiments respecting slavery. We gathered from him that he had resisted with all his might the anti-slavery measures of the English government, and exerted every power to prevent the introduction of the apprentices.h.i.+p system. After he saw that slavery would inevitably be abolished, he drew up at length a plan of emanc.i.p.ation according to which the condition of the slave was to be commuted into that of the old English _villein_--he was to be made an appendage to _the soil_ instead of the ”chattel personal” of the master, the whip was to be partially abolished, a modic.u.m of wages was to be allowed the slave, and so on. There was to be no fixed period when this system would terminate, but it was to fade gradually and imperceptibly into entire freedom. He presented a copy of his scheme to the then governor, the Earl of Mulgrave, requesting that it might be forwarded to the home government. Mr. B. said that the anti-slavery party in England had acted from the blind impulses of religious fanaticism, and had precipitated to its issue a work which required many years of silent preparation in order to its safe accomplishment. He intimated that the management of abolition ought to have been left with the colonists; they had been the long experienced managers of slavery, and they were the only men qualified to superintend its burial, and give it a decent interment.
He did not think that the apprentices.h.i.+p afforded any clue to the dark mystery of 1840. Apprentices.h.i.+p was so inconsiderably different from slavery, that it furnished no more satisfactory data for judging of the results of entire freedom than slavery itself. Neither would he consent to be comforted by the actual results of emanc.i.p.ation in Antigua.