Part 94 (1/2)
The following fact will ill.u.s.trate the injustice of the magistrates. It was stated in writing by a missionary. We conceal all names, in compliance with the request of the writer. ”An apprentice belonging to ---- in the ---- was sent to the treadmill by special justice G. He was ordered to go out and count the sheep, as he was able to count higher than some of the field people, although a house servant from his youth--I may say childhood. Instead of bringing in the tally cut upon a piece of board, as usual, he wrote the number eighty upon a piece of paper. When the overseer saw it, he would scarcely believe that any of his people could write, and ordered a piece of coal to be brought and made him write it over again; the next day he turned him into the field, but unable to perform the task (to hoe and weed one hundred coffee roots daily) with those who had been accustomed to field work all their lives, he was tried for neglect of duty, and sentenced to fourteen days on the treadmill!”
We quote the following heart-rending account from the Telegraph, (Spanishtown,) April 28, 1837. It is from a Baptist missionary.
”I see something is doing in England to shorten the apprentices.h.i.+p system. I pray G.o.d it may soon follow its predecessor--slavery, for it is indeed slavery under a less disgusting name. Business lately (December 23) called me to Rodney Hall; and while I was there, a poor old negro was brought in for punishment. I heard the fearful vociferation, 'twenty stripes.' 'Very well; here ----, put this man down.' I felt as I cannot describe; yet I thought, as the supervisor was disposed to be civil, my presence might tend to make the punishment less severe than it usually is--but I was disappointed. I inquired into the crime for which such an old man could be so severely punished, and heard various accounts. I wrote to the magistrate who sentenced him to receive it; and after many days I got the following reply.”
”_Logan Castle, Jan. 9, 1836._
Sir--In answer to your note of the 4th instant, I beg leave to state, that ---- ----, an apprentice belonging to ---- ----, was brought before me by Mr. ----, his late overseer, charged upon oath with continual neglect of duty and disobedience of orders as cattle-man, and also for stealing milk--was convicted, and sentenced to receive twenty stripes. So far from the punishment of the offender being severe, he was not ordered one half the number of stripes provided for such cases by the abolition act--if he received more than that number, or if those were inflicted with undue severity, I shall feel happy in making every inquiry amongst the authorities at Rodney Hall inst.i.tution.
I remain, sir, yours, truly,
T.W. JONES, S.M.”
'Rev. J. Clarke, &c., &c.'
From Mr. Clarke's reply, we make the following extract:
”_Jericho, January 19, 1836._
Sir--I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th instant.
Respecting the punishment of ---- ----, I still adhere to the opinion I before expressed, that, for an old man of about sixty years of age, the punishment was severe. To see a venerable old man tied as if to be broken on the wheel, and cut to the bone by the lash of an athletic driver--writhing and yelling under the most exquisite torture, were certainly circ.u.mstances sufficiently strong to touch the heart of any one possessed of the smallest degree of common humanity. The usual preparations being made, the old man quietly stripped off his upper garments, and lay down upon the board--he was then tied by his legs, middle, above the elbows, and at each wrist. Mr. ---- then called out to the driver, 'I hope you will do your duty--he is not sent here for nothing.' At the first lash the skin started up; and at the third, the blood began to flow; ere the driver had given ten, the cat was covered with gore; and he stopped to change it for a dry one, which appeared to me somewhat longer than the first. When the poor tortured creature had received sixteen, his violent struggles enabled him to get one of his hands loose, which he put instantly to his back--the driver stopped to retie him, and then proceeded to give the remaining four. The struggles of the poor old man from the first lash bespoke the most extreme torture; and his cries were to me most distressing. 'Oh! oh!
mercy! mercy! mercy! oh! ma.s.sa! ma.s.sa! dat enough--enough! oh, enough! O, ma.s.sa, have pity! O, ma.s.sa! ma.s.sa! dat enough--enough!
Oh, never do de like again--only pity me--forgive me dis once! oh!
pity! mercy! mercy! oh! oh!' were the cries he perpetually uttered.
I shall remember them while I live; and would not for ten thousand worlds have been the cause of producing them. It was some minutes after he was loosed ere he could rise to his feet, and as he attempted to rise, he continued calling out, 'My back! oh! my back!
my back is broken.' A long time he remained half-doubled, the blood flowing round his body; 'I serve my master,' said the aged sufferer, 'at all times; get no Sat.u.r.day, no Sunday; yet this is de way dem use me.'
With such planters, and such magistrates to play into their hands, is it to be wondered at that the apprentices do badly? Enough has been said, we think, to satisfy any candid person as to the _causes of the evils in Jamaica_. If any thing further were needed, we might speak of the peculiar facilities which these men have for perpetrating acts of cruelty and injustice. The major part of the island is exceedingly mountainous, and a large portion of the sugar estates, and most of the coffee plantations, are among the mountains. These estates are scattered over a wide extent of country, and separated by dense forests and mountains, which conceal each plantation from the public view almost as effectually as though it were the only property on the island. The only mode of access to many of the estates in the mountainous districts, is by mule paths winding about, amid fastnesses, precipices, and frightful solitudes.
In those lone retirements, on the mountain top, or in the deep glen by the side of the rocky rivers, the traveller occasionally meets with an estate. Strangers but rarely intrude upon those little domains. They are left to the solitary sway of the overseers dwelling amid their ”gangs,” and undisturbed, save by the weekly visitations of the special magistrates. While the traveller is struck with the facilities for the perpetration of those enormities which must have existed there during slavery; he is painfully impressed also with the numerous opportunities which are still afforded for oppressing the apprentices, particularly where the special magistrates are not honest men.[A]
[Footnote A: From the nature of the case, it must be impossible to know how much actual flogging is perpetrated by the overseers. We might safely conjecture that there must be a vast deal of it that never comes to the light. Such is the decided belief of many of the first men in the island. The planters, say they, flog their apprentices, and then, to prevent their complaining to the magistrate, threaten them with severe punishment, or bribe them to silence by giving them a few s.h.i.+llings. The attorney-general mentioned an instance of the latter policy. A planter got angry with one of his head men, who was a constable, and knocked him down. The man started off to complain to the special magistrate. The master called him back, and told him he need not go to the magistrate--that he was constable, and had a right to fine him himself.
”Well, ma.s.sa,” said the negro, ”I fine you five s.h.i.+llings on de spot.”
The master was glad to get off with that--the magistrate would probably have fined him 5 currency.]
In view of the local situation of Jamaica--the violent character of its planters--and the inevitable dependency of the magistrates, it is very manifest _that immediate emanc.i.p.ation was imperatively demanded there_. In no other colony did the negroes require to be more _entirely released from the tyranny of the overseers, or more thoroughly s.h.i.+elded by the power of equal law_. This is a principle which must hold good always--that where slavery has been most rigorous and absolute, there emanc.i.p.ation, needs to be most unqualified; and where the sway of the master has been _most despotic, cruel, and_ LONG CONTINUED, there the protection of law should be most SPEEDILY _extended and most impartially applied_.”[B]
[Footnote B: Since the above was written we have seen a copy of a message sent by Sir Lionel Smith, to the house of a.s.sembly of Jamaica, on the 3d November, 1837, in which a statement of the deprivations of the apprentices, is officially laid before the house. We make the following extract from it, which contains, to use his Excellency's language, ”the princ.i.p.al causes, as has been found by the records of the special magistrates, of complaints among the apprentices; and of consequent collisions between the planters and magistrates.”
”Prudent and humane planters have already adopted what is recommended, and their properties present the good working of this system in peace and industry, without their resorting to the authority of the special magistrates; but there are other properties where neither the law of the apprentices.h.i.+p nor the usages of slavery have been found sufficient to guard the rights of the apprentices.
First, the magistrates' reports show that on some estates the apprentices have been deprived of cooks and water-carriers while at work in the field--thus, the time allowed for breakfast, instead of being a period of rest, is one of continual labor, as they have to seek for fuel and to cook. The depriving them of water-carriers is still more injurious, as the workmen are not allowed to quit their rows to obtain it. Both these privations are detrimental to the planter's work. Second, a law seems wanting to supply the estates'
hospitals with sufficient attendants on the sick apprentices, as well as for the supply of proper food, as they cannot depend on their own grounds, whilst unable to leave the hospitals. The first clause of the abolition law has not been found strong enough to secure these necessary attentions to the sick. Third, in regard to jobbers, more exposed to hards.h.i.+ps than any other cla.s.s. A law is greatly required allowing them the distance they may have to walk to their work, at the rate of three miles an hour, and for compelling the parties hiring them to supply them with salt food and meal; their grounds are oftentimes so many miles distant, it is impossible for them to supply themselves. Hence constant complaints and irregularities. Fourth, that mothers of six children and upwards, pregnant women, and the aged of both s.e.xes, would be greatly benefited by a law enforcing the kind treatment which they received in slavery, but which is now considered optional, or is altogether avoided on many properties. Fifth, nothing would tend more to effect general contentment and repress the evils of comparative treatment, than the issue of fish as a right by law. It was an indulgence in slavery seldom denied, but on many properties is now withheld, or given for extra labor instead of wages. Sixth, his Excellency during the last sessions had the honor to address a message to the house for a stronger definition of working time. The clause of the act in aid expressed that it was the intention of the legislature to regulate 'uniformity' of labor, but in practice there is still a great diversity of system. The legal adviser of the crown considers the clause active and binding; the special magistrate cannot, therefore, adjudicate on disputes of labor under the eight hour system, and the consequences have been continual complaints and bickerings between the magistrates and managers, and discontent among the apprentices by comparison of the advantages which one system presents over the other. Seventh, if your honorable house would adopt some equitable fixed principle for the value of apprentices desirous of purchasing their discharge, either by ascertained rates of weekly labor, or by fixed sums according to their trade or occupation, which should not be exceeded, and allowing the deduction of one third from the extreme value for the contingencies of maintenance, clothing, medical aid, risk of life, and health, it would greatly tend to set at rest one cause of constant disappointment. In proportion as the term of apprentices.h.i.+p draws to a close, THE DEMANDS FOR THE SALE OF SERVICES HAVE GREATLY INCREASED. It is in the hope that the honorable house will be disposed to enforce a more general system of equal treatment, that his Excellency now circ.u.mstantially represents what have been the most common causes of complaint among the apprentices, and why the island is subject to the reproach that the negroes, in some respects, are now in a worse condition than they were in slavery.”
We heard frequent complaints in Jamaica respecting the falling off of the crops since abolition. In order that the reader may know the extent of the failure in the aggregate island crops, we have inserted in the appendix a table showing the ”exports for fifty-three years, ending 31st December, 1836, condensed from the journals of the House.”
By the disaffected planters, the diminished crops were hailed as ”an evident token of perdition.” They had foretold that abolition would be the ruin of cultivation, they had maintained that sugar, coffee, rum, &c., could not be produced extensively without the _whip of slavery_, and now they exultingly point to the short crops and say, ”See the results of abolition!” We say exultingly, for a portion of the planters do really seem to rejoice in any indication of ruin. Having staked their reputation as prophets against their credit as colonists and their interests as men, they seem happy in the establishment of the former, even though it be by the sacrifice of the latter. Said an intelligent gentleman in St. Thomas in the East, ”The planters have _set their hearts upon_ ruin, and they will be sorely disappointed if it should not come.”